BILL NUMBER: AB 2713 INTRODUCED
BILL TEXT
INTRODUCED BY Assembly Member Knight
FEBRUARY 19, 2010
An act to amend Section 21080 of the Public Resources Code,
relating to the environment.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
AB 2713, as introduced, Knight. Environment: CEQA.
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 (EIR) 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 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.
This bill would make technical, nonsubstantive changes to the
CEQA.
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 of the Public Resources Code is amended
to read:
21080. (a) Except as otherwise provided in this division, this
division shall apply to discretionary projects proposed to be carried
out or approved by public agencies, including, but not limited to,
the enactment and amendment of zoning ordinances, the issuance of
zoning variances, the issuance of conditional use permits, and the
approval of tentative subdivision maps unless the project is exempt
from this division.
(b) This division does not apply to any of the following
activities:
(1) Ministerial projects proposed to be carried out or approved by
public agencies.
(2) Emergency repairs to public service facilities necessary to
maintain service.
(3) Projects undertaken, carried out, or approved by a public
agency to maintain, repair, restore, demolish, or replace property or
facilities damaged or destroyed as a result of a disaster in a
disaster-stricken area in which a state of emergency has been
proclaimed by the Governor pursuant to Chapter 7 (commencing with
Section 8550) of Division 1 of Title 2 of the Government Code.
(4) Specific actions necessary to prevent or mitigate an
emergency.
(5) Projects which that a public
agency rejects or disapproves.
(6) Actions undertaken by a public agency relating to any
a thermal powerplant site or facility,
including the expenditure, obligation, or encumbrance of funds by a
public agency for planning, engineering, or design purposes, or for
the conditional sale or purchase of equipment, fuel, water (except
groundwater), steam, or power for a thermal powerplant, if the
powerplant site and related facility will be the subject of an
environmental impact report, negative declaration, or other document,
prepared pursuant to a regulatory program certified pursuant to
Section 21080.5, which will be prepared by the State Energy Resources
Conservation and Development Commission, by the Public Utilities
Commission, or by the city or county in which the powerplant and
related facility would be located if the environmental impact report,
negative declaration, or document includes the environmental impact,
if any, of the action described in this paragraph.
(7) Activities or approvals necessary to the bidding for, hosting
or staging of, and funding or carrying out of, an Olympic games under
the authority of the International Olympic Committee, except for the
construction of facilities necessary for the Olympic games.
(8) The establishment, modification, structuring, restructuring,
or approval of rates, tolls, fares, or other charges by public
agencies which that the public agency
finds are for the purpose of (A) meeting operating expenses,
including employee wage rates and fringe benefits, (B) purchasing or
leasing supplies, equipment, or materials, (C) meeting financial
reserve needs and requirements, (D) obtaining funds for capital
projects necessary to maintain service within existing service areas,
or (E) obtaining funds necessary to maintain those intracity
transfers as are authorized by city charter. The public agency shall
incorporate written findings in the record of any proceeding in which
an exemption under this paragraph is claimed setting forth with
specificity the basis for the claim of exemption.
(9) All classes of projects designated pursuant to Section 21084.
(10) A project for the institution or increase of passenger or
commuter services on rail or highway rights-of-way already in use,
including modernization of existing stations and parking facilities.
(11) A project for the institution or increase of passenger or
commuter service on high-occupancy vehicle lanes already in use,
including the modernization of existing stations and parking
facilities.
(12) Facility extensions not to exceed four miles in length
which that are required for the
transfer of passengers from or to exclusive public mass transit
guideway or busway public transit services.
(13) A project for the development of a regional transportation
improvement program, the state transportation improvement program, or
a congestion management program prepared pursuant to Section 65089
of the Government Code.
(14) Any A project or
portion thereof of the project located
in another state which that will be
subject to environmental impact review pursuant to the National
Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (42 U.S.C. Sec. 4321 et seq.) or
similar state laws of that state. Any emissions or discharges that
would have a significant effect on the environment in this state are
subject to this division.
(15) Projects undertaken by a local agency to implement a rule or
regulation imposed by a state agency, board, or commission under a
certified regulatory program pursuant to Section 21080.5.
Any A site-specific effect of the project
which that was not analyzed as a
significant effect on the environment in the plan or other written
documentation required by Section 21080.5 is subject to this
division.
(16) The selection, credit, and transfer of emission credits by
the South Coast Air Quality Management District pursuant to Section
40440.14 of the Health and Safety Code, until the repeal of that
section on January 1, 2012, or a later date.
(c) If a lead agency determines that a proposed project, not
otherwise exempt from this division, would not have a significant
effect on the environment, the lead agency shall adopt a negative
declaration to that effect. The negative declaration shall be
prepared for the proposed project in either of the following
circumstances:
(1) There is no substantial evidence, in light of the whole record
before the lead agency, that the project may have a significant
effect on the environment.
(2) An initial study identifies potentially significant effects on
the environment, but (A) revisions in the project plans or proposals
made by, or agreed to by, the applicant before the proposed negative
declaration and initial study are released for public review would
avoid the effects or mitigate the effects to a point where clearly no
significant effect on the environment would occur, and (B) there is
no substantial evidence, in light of the whole record before the lead
agency, that the project, as revised, may have a significant effect
on the environment.
(d) If there is substantial evidence, in light of the whole record
before the lead agency, that the project may have a significant
effect on the environment, an environmental impact report shall be
prepared.
(e) (1) For the purposes of this section and this division,
substantial evidence includes fact, a reasonable assumption
predicated upon fact, or expert opinion supported by fact.
(2) Substantial evidence is not argument, speculation,
unsubstantiated opinion or narrative, evidence that is clearly
inaccurate or erroneous, or evidence of social or economic impacts
that do not contribute to, or are not caused by, physical impacts on
the environment.
(f) As a result of the public review process for a mitigated
negative declaration, including administrative decisions and public
hearings, the lead agency may conclude that certain mitigation
measures identified pursuant to paragraph (2) of subdivision (c) are
infeasible or otherwise undesirable. In those circumstances, the lead
agency, prior to approving the project, may delete those mitigation
measures and substitute for them other mitigation measures that the
lead agency finds, after holding a public hearing on the matter, are
equivalent or more effective in mitigating significant effects on the
environment to a less than significant level and that do not cause
any potentially significant effect on the environment. If those new
mitigation measures are made conditions of project approval or are
otherwise made part of the project approval, the deletion of the
former measures and the substitution of the new mitigation measures
shall not constitute an action or circumstance requiring
recirculation of the mitigated negative declaration.
(g) Nothing in this This
section shall does not preclude a
project applicant or any other person from challenging, in an
administrative or judicial proceeding, the legality of a condition of
project approval imposed by the lead agency. If, however, any
condition of project approval set aside by either an administrative
body or court was necessary to avoid or lessen the likelihood of the
occurrence of a significant effect on the environment, the lead
agency's approval of the negative declaration and project shall be
invalid and a new environmental review process shall be conducted
before the project can be reapproved, unless the lead agency
substitutes a new condition that the lead agency finds, after holding
a public hearing on the matter, is equivalent to, or more effective
in, lessening or avoiding significant effects on the environment and
that does not cause any potentially significant effect on the
environment.