BILL ANALYSIS Ó
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | AB 543|
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THIRD READING
Bill No: AB 543
Author: Campos (D)
Amended: 6/24/13 in Senate
Vote: 21
SENATE ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY COMMITTEE : 7-0, 6/18/14
AYES: Hill, Gaines, Fuller, Hancock, Jackson, Leno, Pavley
SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE : 5-0, 8/14/14
AYES: De León, Hill, Lara, Padilla, Steinberg
NO VOTE RECORDED: Walters, Gaines
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 52-24, 5/31/13 - See last page for vote
SUBJECT : California Environmental Quality Act: translation
SOURCE : Author
DIGEST : This bill requires the Office of Planning and
Research (Office), on or before July 1, 2016, to prepare and
develop recommended amendments to the guidelines for
implementation of the California Environmental Quality Act
(CEQA) relative to translation of CEQA notices, and requires the
Secretary of the Natural Resources Agency (Secretary), on or
before January 1, 2017, to certify and adopt those amendments to
the guidelines to establish criteria for a lead agency to assess
the need for translating notices into non-English languages, as
specified.
ANALYSIS :
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Existing law establishes CEQA, which:
1.Requires a lead agency to:
A. Prepare and certify the completion of an EIR for a
proposed project that it finds would have a significant
effect on the environment, or if it finds otherwise, adopt
a negative declaration or mitigated negative declaration.
B. Prepare and file, with either the Office of Planning and
Research or the county clerk having jurisdiction over the
project, the following notices:
(1) A notice of intent when the lead agency decides to
adopt a negative declaration or a mitigated negative
declaration;
(2) A notice of determination when the lead agency
decides to carry out or approve a project for which it
has adopted a negative declaration or mitigated negative
declaration, or certified an EIR;
(3) A notice of preparation when the lead agency decides
to prepare a negative declaration, a mitigated negative
declaration, or an EIR for the project; and
(4) A notice of completion when the draft EIR is
complete.
A. Call and provide notice of at least one scoping meeting
for projects that may affect highways or other facilities
under the Department of Transportation's (Caltrans)
jurisdiction if Caltrans requests such a meeting, or for
projects of statewide, regional, or area-wide significance.
B. Provide and post specified notices.
1.Authorizes a lead agency to file a notice of exemption when it
approves or determines to carry out a project that qualifies
for a statutory or categorical exemption from CEQA.
2.Requires the Office to prepare and develop guidelines for the
implementation of CEQA and the Secretary to certify and adopt
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those guidelines.
This bill:
1.Requires the Office to prepare and develop criteria for a lead
agency to assess the need for translating scoping meeting
notices, notices of preparation, and notices of approval into
non-English languages and for posting requirements of such
translated notices.
2.Requires the Office to develop the criteria by July 1, 2016
and the Secretary will be required to adopt the criteria into
the CEQA guidelines by January 1, 2017.
Comments
CEQA requires state and local agencies to undergo an
environmental review process before carrying out or approving a
proposed project. This allows stakeholders such as a private
developer, a public agency, and a local community to consider
the significant environmental effects of the proposed project
and adopt measures that would minimize or mitigate them.
With the increasing diversity of California's communities,
multi-stakeholder engagement is critical to ensuring that CEQA's
environmental goals are achieved in an equitable manner. The
author's office argues that a project may have significant
consequences on immigrant and low-income communities who either
live at or close to the project site. But because of their
limited ability to communicate in English, they cannot
participate in the CEQA process as meaningfully as native
English speakers would.
The state's diverse population has given rise to statutory
requirements for translating important consumer and government
services documents to popular foreign languages like Spanish and
Mandarin. One example in the Civil Code is the foreign
translation of consumer contracts if negotiations between a
business representative and a consumer are conducted primarily
in Spanish, Chinese, Tagalog, Vietnamese, or Korean. The
business representative must provide the consumer a copy of the
negotiated contract in the foreign language spoken by the
consumer during negotiations.
Another example is the Dymally-Alatorre Bilingual Services Act,
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(Gov. Code Sec. 7290 et seq.) which applies to state and local
agencies. Dymally-Alatorre requires state agencies to translate
informational documents about government services when 5% or
more of the people served by its local office or facility either
do not speak English or cannot effectively communicate in
English because it is not their native language.
FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: Yes
Local: Yes
According to the Senate Appropriations Committee:
One-time costs in the low to mid-hundreds of thousands of
dollars from the General Fund to OPR to develop recommended
regulations.
Cost pressures at least in the hundreds of thousands of
dollars from General and special funds to various state
agencies acting as the lead agency under CEQA for translation
costs.
SUPPORT : (Per Senate Environmental Quality Committee analysis
of 5/24/14--Unable to reverify at time of writing)
Asian Pacific Environmental Network
California Coastal Protection Network
California Coastkeeper Alliance
California Environmental Justice Alliance
California Native Plant Society
Center on Race, Poverty, and the Environment
Clean Water Action California
Coalition for Clean Air
Committee for Green Foothills
Communities for a Better Environment
Endangered Habitats League
Environment California
Environmental Defense Center
Foothills Conservancy
Forests Forever
Friends of the Eel River
Laguna Greenbelt, Inc.
Nichols-Berman Environmental Planning
North Country Watch
Planning and Conservation League
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Sierra Club California
The City Project
Transportation Solutions Defense and Education Fund
OPPOSITION : (Per Senate Environmental Quality Committee
analysis of 5/24/14--Unable to reverify at time of writing)
American Council of Engineering Companies, California
American Planning Association, California Chapter
Associated Builders and Contractors of California
Association of California Healthcare Districts
Association of California Water Agencies
California Association of Realtors
California Association of Sanitation Agencies
California Association of School Business Officials
California Building Industry Association
California Business Properties Association
California Chamber of Commerce
California Grocers Association
California Manufacturers and Technology Association
California Municipal Utilities Association
California Special Districts Association
California State Association of Counties
Friant Water Authority
Irvine Ranch Water District
Orange County Board of Supervisors
Rural County Representatives of California
Three Valleys Municipal Water District
Urban Counties Caucus
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 52-24, 5/31/13
AYES: Alejo, Ammiano, Atkins, Bloom, Blumenfield, Bocanegra,
Bonilla, Bonta, Bradford, Brown, Buchanan, Ian Calderon,
Campos, Chau, Chesbro, Cooley, Daly, Dickinson, Eggman, Fong,
Fox, Frazier, Garcia, Gatto, Gomez, Gonzalez, Gordon, Gray,
Hall, Roger Hernández, Jones-Sawyer, Levine, Lowenthal,
Mitchell, Mullin, Muratsuchi, Nazarian, Pan, Perea, V. Manuel
Pérez, Quirk, Quirk-Silva, Rendon, Salas, Skinner, Stone,
Ting, Weber, Wieckowski, Williams, Yamada, John A. Pérez
NOES: Achadjian, Allen, Bigelow, Conway, Dahle, Donnelly, Beth
Gaines, Gorell, Grove, Hagman, Harkey, Jones, Linder, Logue,
Maienschein, Mansoor, Melendez, Morrell, Nestande, Olsen,
Patterson, Wagner, Waldron, Wilk
NO VOTE RECORDED: Chávez, Holden, Medina, Vacancy
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RM:e 8/16/14 Senate Floor Analyses
SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: SEE ABOVE
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