BILL NUMBER: AB 956	AMENDED
	BILL TEXT

	AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY  APRIL 6, 2015

INTRODUCED BY   Assembly Member Mathis

                        FEBRUARY 26, 2015

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



	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   AB 956, as amended, Mathis. California Environmental Quality Act:
 noncompliance allegations: standing.  
exemption. 
   The California Environmental Quality Act  (CEQA) 
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. 

   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. 
   This bill would  make nonsubstantive changes to that
provision.   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. 
   Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: no.
State-mandated local program: no.


THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:

   SECTION 1.    Section 21080.41 is added to the 
 Public Resources Code   , to read:  
   21080.41.  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. 

  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.