BILL NUMBER: SB 734 AMENDED
BILL TEXT
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY JUNE 21, 2016
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY MAY 19, 2016
AMENDED IN SENATE JUNE 2, 2015
INTRODUCED BY Senator Galgiani
FEBRUARY 27, 2015
An act to amend Sections 21178, 21181, 21183, 21189.1,
and 21189.3 of of, and to add Section 21184.5
to, the Public Resources Code, relating to environmental
quality, and declaring the urgency thereof, to take effect
immediately.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
SB 734, as amended, Galgiani. Environmental quality: Jobs and
Economic Improvement Through Environmental Leadership Act of 2011.
(1) 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. CEQA 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 Jobs and Economic Improvement Through Environmental Leadership
Act of 2011 authorizes the Governor, until January 1, 2016, to
certify projects meeting certain requirements, including the
requirement that the project creates high-wage, highly skilled jobs
that pay prevailing wages and living wages, for streamlining benefits
provided by that act. The act provides that if a lead agency fails
to approve a project certified by the Governor before January 1,
2017, then the certification expires and is no longer valid. The act
requires a lead agency to prepare the record of proceedings for the
certified project concurrent with the preparation of the
environmental documents. The act is repealed by its own terms on
January 1, 2017.
This bill would extend the authority of the Governor to certify a
project to January 1, 2018. The bill would provide that the
certification expires and is no longer valid if the lead agency fails
to approve a certified project before January 1, 2019. If a project
is certified by the Governor, the bill would require contractors and
subcontractors to pay to all construction workers employed in the
execution of the project at least the general prevailing rate of per
diem wages and would provide for the enforcement of this requirement.
The bill would repeal the act on January 1, 2019. Because the bill
would extend the obligation of the lead agency to prepare
concurrently the record of proceedings, this bill would impose a
state-mandated local program.
This bill would, notwithstanding any other law, require a
multifamily residential project certified pursuant to the act to
provide private vehicle parking spaces that are priced and rented or
purchased separately from dwelling units, except as provided.
(2) The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse
local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the
state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that
reimbursement.
This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this
act for a specified reason.
(3) This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately
as an urgency statute.
Vote: 2/3. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes.
State-mandated local program: yes.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. Section 21178 of the Public
Resources Code is amended to read:
21178. The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:
(a) The overall unemployment rate in California is 12 percent, and
in certain regions of the state that rate exceeds 13 percent.
(b)
(a) The California Environmental Quality Act (Division
13 (commencing with Section 21000) of the Public Resources Code)
requires that the environmental impacts of development projects be
identified and mitigated.
(c)
(b) The act also guarantees the public an opportunity
to review and comment on the environmental impacts of a project and
to participate meaningfully in the development of mitigation measures
for potentially significant environmental impacts.
(d)
(c) There are large projects under consideration in
various regions of the state that would replace old and outmoded
facilities with new job-creating facilities to meet those regions'
needs while also establishing new, cutting-edge environmental
benefits to those regions.
(e)
(d) These projects are privately financed or financed
from revenues generated from the projects themselves and do not
require taxpayer financing.
(f)
(e) These projects further will generate thousands of
full-time jobs during construction and thousands of additional
permanent jobs once they are constructed and operating.
(g)
(f) These projects also present an unprecedented
opportunity to implement nation-leading innovative measures that will
significantly reduce traffic, air quality, and other significant
environmental impacts, and fully mitigate the greenhouse gas
emissions resulting from passenger vehicle trips attributed to the
project.
(h)
(g) These pollution reductions will be the best in the
nation compared to other comparable projects in the United States.
(i)
(h) The purpose of this act
chapter is to provide unique and unprecedented streamlining
benefits under the California Environmental Quality Act for projects
that provide the benefits described above for a limited period of
time to put people to work as soon as possible.
SECTION 1. SEC. 2. Section 21181 of
the Public Resources Code is amended to read:
21181. This chapter does not apply to a project if the Governor
does not certify the project as an environmental leadership
development project eligible for streamlining pursuant to this
chapter prior to January 1, 2018.
SEC. 2. SEC. 3. Section 21183 of the
Public Resources Code is amended to read:
21183. The Governor may certify a leadership project for
streamlining pursuant to this chapter if all the following conditions
are met:
(a) The project will result in a minimum investment of one hundred
million dollars ($100,000,000) in California upon completion of
construction.
(b) (1) The project creates high-wage, highly skilled jobs that
pay prevailing wages and living wages and provide construction jobs
and permanent jobs for Californians, and helps reduce unemployment.
For purposes of this subdivision, "jobs that pay prevailing wages"
means that all construction workers employed in the execution of the
project will receive at least the general prevailing rate of per diem
wages for the type of work and geographic area, as determined by the
Director of Industrial Relations pursuant to Sections 1773 and
1773.9 of the Labor Code. If the project is certified for
streamlining, the project applicant shall include this requirement in
all contracts for the performance of the work.
(2) (A) If the project is certified pursuant to this chapter,
contractors and subcontractors shall pay to all construction workers
employed in the execution of the project at least the general
prevailing rate of per diem wages.
(B) Except as provided in subparagraph (C), the obligation of the
contractors and subcontractors to pay prevailing wages pursuant to
subparagraph (A) may be enforced by the Labor Commissioner through
the issuance of a civil wage and penalty assessment pursuant to
Section 1741 of the Labor Code, which may be reviewed pursuant to
Section 1742 of the Labor Code, within 18 months after the completion
of the project, or by an underpaid worker through an administrative
complaint or civil action. If a civil wage and penalty assessment is
issued, the contractor, subcontractor, and surety on a bond or bonds
issued to secure the payment of wages covered by the assessment shall
be liable for liquidated damages pursuant to Section 1742.1 of the
Labor Code.
(C) Subparagraph (B) does not apply if all contractors and
subcontractors performing work on the project are subject to a
project labor agreement that requires the payment of prevailing wages
to all construction workers employed in the execution of the project
and provides for enforcement of that obligation through an
arbitration procedure. For purposes of this subparagraph, "project
labor agreement" has the same meaning as set forth in paragraph (1)
of subdivision (b) of Section 2500 of the Public Contract Code.
(c) The project does not result in any net additional emission of
greenhouse gases, including greenhouse gas emissions from employee
transportation, as determined by the State Air Resources Board
pursuant to Division 25.5 (commencing with Section 38500) of the
Health and Safety Code.
(d) The project applicant has entered into a binding and
enforceable agreement that all mitigation measures required pursuant
to this division to certify the project under this chapter shall be
conditions of approval of the project, and those conditions will be
fully enforceable by the lead agency or another agency designated by
the lead agency. In the case of environmental mitigation measures,
the applicant agrees, as an ongoing obligation, that those measures
will be monitored and enforced by the lead agency for the life of the
obligation.
(e) The project applicant agrees to pay the costs of the Court of
Appeal in hearing and deciding any case, including payment of the
costs for the appointment of a special master if deemed appropriate
by the court, in a form and manner specified by the Judicial Council,
as provided in the Rules of Court adopted by the Judicial Council
pursuant to Section 21185.
(f) The project applicant agrees to pay the costs of preparing the
administrative record for the project concurrent with review and
consideration of the project pursuant to this division, in a form and
manner specified by the lead agency for the project.
SEC. 4. Section 21184.5 is adde d to
the Public Resources Code , to read:
21184.5. (a) Notwithstanding any other law, except as provided in
subdivision (b), a multifamily residential project certified under
this chapter shall provide unbundled parking, such that private
vehicle parking spaces are priced and rented or purchased separately
from dwelling units.
(b) Subdivision (a) shall not apply if the dwelling units are
subject to affordability restrictions in law that prescribe rent or
sale prices, and the cost of parking spaces cannot be unbundled from
the cost of dwelling units.
SEC. 3. SEC. 5. Section 21189.1 of
the Public Resources Code is amended to read:
21189.1. If, prior to January 1, 2019, a lead agency fails to
approve a project certified by the Governor pursuant to this chapter,
then the certification expires and is no longer valid.
SEC. 4. SEC. 6. Section 21189.3 of
the Public Resources Code is amended to read:
21189.3. This chapter shall remain in effect until January 1,
2019, and as of that date is repealed unless a later enacted statute
extends or repeals that date.
SEC. 5. SEC. 7. No reimbursement is
required by this act pursuant to Section 6 of Article XIII B of the
California Constitution because a local agency or school district has
the authority to levy service charges, fees, or assessments
sufficient to pay for the program or level of service mandated by
this act, within the meaning of Section 17556 of the Government Code.
SEC. 6. SEC. 8. This act is an
urgency statute necessary for the immediate preservation of the
public peace, health, or safety within the meaning of Article IV of
the Constitution and shall go into immediate effect. The facts
constituting the necessity are:
In order to reauthorize the Governor to certify projects as
environmental leadership development projects in 2016 and prevent a
one-year gap in this authorization, it is necessary that this act
take effect immediately.
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