Amended in Assembly April 6, 2015

California Legislature—2015–16 Regular Session

Assembly Bill No. 956

Introduced by Assembly Member Mathis

February 26, 2015

An act to begin delete amend Section 21177 of end delete begin insert add Section 21080.41 to end insert the Public Resources Code, relating to environmental quality.

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL’S DIGEST

AB 956, as amended, Mathis. California Environmental Quality Act: begin delete noncompliance allegations: standing. end delete begin insert exemption. end insert

The California Environmental Quality Act begin insert (CEQA) end insert requires a lead agency, as defined, to prepare, or cause to be prepared, and certify the completion of, an environmental impact report on a project that it proposes to carry out or approve that may have a significant effect on the environment or to adopt a negative declaration if it finds that the project will not have that effect. The act also requires a lead agency to prepare a mitigated negative declaration for a project that may have a significant effect on the environment if revisions in the project would avoid or mitigate that effect and there is no substantial evidence that the project, as revised, would have a significant effect on the environment.

begin delete

The act requires an action or proceeding alleging noncompliance with its requirements to be based on grounds that were presented to the public agency, orally or in writing, by any person and requires the person maintaining the action or proceeding to have objected to the approval of the project, orally or in writing, during the public comment period provided under the act or prior to the close of the public hearing on the project before the issuance of the notice of determination. For an organization formed after the approval of a project, the act provides, on and after January 1, 2016, that that organization may maintain an action or proceeding if a member of the organization objected to the approval of the project during one of the 2 specified time periods.

end delete

This bill would begin delete make nonsubstantive changes to that provision. end delete begin insert exempt from the requirements of CEQA activities undertaken by a local agency in response to a drought that are necessary to acquire water supplies, extend service, or provide water for drinking and sanitation to specific individuals and communities. end insert

Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: no. State-mandated local program: no.

The people of the State of California do enact as follows:

begin insert

begin insert SECTION 1. end insert   

end insert

begin insert Section 21080.41 is added to the end insert begin insert Public Resources
Code end insert begin insert , to read: end insert

begin insert

begin insert 21080.41. end insert   

This division does not apply to any activities
undertaken by a local agency in response to a drought that are
necessary to acquire water supplies, extend service, or provide
water for drinking and sanitation to individuals and communities
whose groundwater wells have run dry or where the only available
groundwater exceeds a primary or secondary drinking water
standards, as defined in Section 116275 of the Health and Safety
Code.

end insert

begin delete

SECTION 1.  

Section 21177 of the Public Resources Code, as
added by Section 12 of Chapter 496 of the Statutes of 2010, is
amended to read:

21177.  

(a) An action or proceeding shall not be brought
pursuant to Section 21167 unless the alleged grounds for
noncompliance with this division were presented to the public
agency orally or in writing by a person during the public comment
period provided by this division or prior to the close of the public
hearing on the project before the issuance of the notice of
determination.

(b) A person shall not maintain an action or proceeding unless
that person objected to the approval of the project orally or in
writing during the public comment period provided by this division
or prior to the close of the public hearing on the project before the
filing of notice of determination pursuant to Sections 21108 and
21152.

(c) This section does not preclude an organization formed after
the approval of a project from maintaining an action pursuant to
Section 21167 if a member of that organization has complied with
subdivision (b).

(d) This section does not apply to the Attorney General.

(e) This section does not apply to any alleged grounds for
noncompliance with this division for which there was no public
hearing or other opportunity for members of the public to raise
those objections orally or in writing prior to the approval of the
project, or if the public agency failed to give the notice required
by law.

(f) This section shall become operative on January 1, 2016.

end delete