BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 543
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CONCURRENCE IN SENATE AMENDMENTS
AB 543 (Campos)
As Amended June 24, 2014
Majority vote
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|ASSEMBLY: |52-24|(May 31, 2013) |SENATE: |31-3 |(August 21, |
| | | | | |2014) |
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Original Committee Reference: NAT. RES.
SUMMARY : Requires the California Environmental Quality Act
(CEQA) guidelines to be amended to establish criteria for a lead
agency regarding translating and posting specified CEQA notices
in non-English languages.
The Senate amendments delete the Assembly version of this bill,
and instead:
1)Require the Office of Planning and Research (OPR), on or
before July 1, 2016, to prepare, develop and transmit to the
Secretary of the Natural Resources Agency recommended
amendments to the CEQA guidelines to establish criteria for a
lead agency to assess the need for translating specified CEQA
notices into non-English languages and requirements for
posting these notices in non-English languages.
2)Requires the Secretary to certify and adopt those amendments
on or before January 1, 2017.
EXISTING LAW establishes CEQA, which:
1)Requires a lead agency to:
a) Prepare and certify the completion of an environmental
impact report (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 OPR or the county
clerk having jurisdiction over the project, the following
notices:
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i) A notice of intent (NOI) when the lead agency
decides to adopt a negative declaration or a mitigated
negative declaration;
ii) A notice of determination (NOD) 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;
iii) A notice of preparation (NOP) when the lead agency
decides to prepare a negative declaration, a mitigated
negative declaration, or an EIR for the project; and
iv) A notice of completion (NOC) when the draft EIR is
complete.
c) 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 areawide significance.
2)Authorizes a lead agency to file a notice of exemption (NOE)
when it approves or determines to carry out a project that
qualifies for a statutory or categorical exemption from CEQA.
3)Requires OPR to prepare and develop guidelines for the
implementation of CEQA and the Secretary to certify and adopt
those guidelines.
AS PASSED BY THE ASSEMBLY , this bill:
1)Required a lead agency to translate specified CEQA notices, as
well as summaries of a negative declaration, mitigated
negative declaration, or EIR, when a group of
non-English-speaking people comprises at least 25% of the
population within a lead agency's jurisdiction.
2)Defined "group of non-English-speaking people" to mean members
of a group who either do not speak English or who are unable
to effectively communicate in English because it is not their
native language.
FISCAL EFFECT : According to the Senate Appropriations
Committee, one-time costs in the low to mid-hundreds of
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thousands of dollars from the General Fund to OPR to develop
recommended regulations, and 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.
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 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.
Translating important CEQA notices to the community's language
would thus be an important step in rectifying this concern.
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,
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.
Analysis Prepared by : Lawrence Lingbloom / NAT. RES. / (916)
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319-2092
FN: 0005345