BILL ANALYSIS �
AB 1570
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ASSEMBLY THIRD READING
AB 1570 (Perea)
As Amended April 10, 2012
Majority vote
NATURAL RESOURCES 9-0 APPROPRIATIONS 17-0
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|Ayes:|Chesbro, Knight, |Ayes:|Fuentes, Harkey, |
| |Brownley, Dickinson, | |Blumenfield, Bradford, |
| |Grove, Halderman, | |Charles Calderon, Campos, |
| |Huffman, Monning, Skinner | |Davis, Donnelly, Gatto, |
| | | |Ammiano, Hill, Lara, |
| | | |Mitchell, Nielsen, Norby, |
| | | |Solorio, Wagner |
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SUMMARY : Requires the lead agency for a project reviewed under
the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) to prepare and
certify the record of proceedings concurrently with the
administrative process for certain environmental documents.
Specifically, this bill :
1) Provides procedures for a lead agency to prepare and certify
the record of proceedings concurrently with the
administrative process for environmental documents, and to
promptly post all documents on the Internet:
a) Requires these procedures for any project of statewide,
regional or area-wide environmental significance (those
projects where the draft environmental impact report
(EIR), proposed negative declaration or proposed mitigated
negative declaration must be submitted to appropriate
state agencies for review and comment) and certain other
infill development projects.
b) Permits these procedures for other projects upon the
request of the project applicant and consent of the lead
agency, provided the project applicant agrees to pay the
lead agency's costs of preparation.
2) Sunsets January 1, 2016.
EXISTING LAW :
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1) Requires lead agencies with the principal responsibility for
carrying out or approving a proposed discretionary project to
prepare a negative declaration, mitigated negative
declaration, or EIR for this action, unless the project is
exempt from CEQA (CEQA includes various statutory exemptions,
as well as categorical exemptions in the CEQA guidelines).
2) Establishes requirements relating to preparation, review,
comment, approval and certification of environmental
documents, as well as procedures relating to an action or
proceeding to attack, review, set aside, void, or annul
various actions of a public agency on the grounds of
noncompliance with CEQA. At the time an action or proceeding
is filed in court, the plaintiff must file a request that the
respondent public agency prepare the record of proceedings,
which must be served personally upon the public agency no
later than 10 business days from the date the action or
proceeding was filed. The public agency must prepare and
certify the record no later than 60 days from the date the
request was made by the plaintiff. Upon certification the
public agency must lodge a copy of the record with the court.
The plaintiff may elect to prepare the record of proceedings
or the parties may agree to an alternative method of
preparation of the record.
3) Establishes special procedures relating to an "environmental
leadership" project under the Jobs and Economic Improvement
Through Environmental Leadership Act (AB 900 (Buchanan and
Gordon), Chapter 354, Statutes of 2011) which includes
requirements for preparation and certification of the
administrative record concurrently with the administrative
process and certain related requirements.
FISCAL EFFECT : According to the Assembly Appropriations
Committee:
Unknown costs to state agencies, to the extent they are lead
CEQA permitting agencies for projects for which the lead agency
must, or agrees to, concurrently prepare the record of
proceeding, to concurrently prepare record of proceeding
(various funds). These costs should be fully reimbursed by
project applicants who request the record of proceedings to be
prepared concurrently with the administrative process.
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Unknown, potentially significant one-time General Fund and
special fund costs to state agencies, to the extent they are
lead CEQA permitting agencies for projects, to upgrade
electronic data management capabilities to allow for the
functionality required by this bill, such as posting
downloadable forms online and making draft environmental
documents available electronically. For example, the Department
of Fish and Game estimates costs well over $150,000 to upgrade
its information technology system, which the department
describes as antiquated.
COMMENTS : CEQA provides a process for evaluating the
environmental effects of applicable projects undertaken or
approved by public agencies. If a project is not exempt from
CEQA, an initial study is prepared to determine whether the
project may have a significant effect on the environment. If
the initial study shows that there would not be a significant
effect on the environment, the lead agency must prepare a
negative declaration. If the initial study shows that the
project may have a significant effect on the environment, the
lead agency must prepare an EIR.
An EIR must accurately describe the proposed project, identify
and analyze each significant environmental impact expected to
result from the proposed project, identify mitigation measures
to reduce those impacts to the extent feasible, and evaluate a
range of reasonable alternatives to the proposed project. If
mitigation measures are required or incorporated into a project,
the agency must adopt a reporting or monitoring program to
ensure compliance with those measures.
Generally, CEQA actions taken by local public agencies can be
challenged in Superior Court once the agency approves or
determines to carry out the project. CEQA appeals are subject
to unusually short statutes of limitations. Under current law,
court challenges of CEQA decisions generally must be filed
within 30-35 days, depending on the type of decision. The
courts are required to give CEQA actions preference over all
other civil actions. However, the schedules for briefing,
hearing, and decision are less definite. The petitioner must
request a hearing within 90 days of filing the petition and,
generally, briefing must be completed within 90 days of the
request for hearing. There is no deadline specified for the
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court to render a decision.
In 2011, AB 900 and its companion measure, SB 292 (Padilla),
Chapter 353, Statutes of 2011, established expedited judicial
review procedures for a limited number of projects. For AB 900,
it was large-scale projects meeting extraordinary environmental
standards and providing significant jobs and investment. For SB
292, it was a proposed downtown Los Angeles football stadium and
convention center project achieving specified traffic and air
quality mitigations. For these eligible projects, the bills
provided for original jurisdiction by the Court of Appeal and a
compressed schedule requiring the court to render a decision on
any lawsuit within 175 days. As part of their expedited
judicial review procedures, these bills required the lead to
prepare and certify the record of proceedings concurrently with
the administrative process and required the applicant to pay for
it. It was commonly agreed that this would expedite preparation
of the record for trial. This bill applies that concurrent
record preparation process broadly to any project under CEQA.
Analysis Prepared by : Lawrence Lingbloom / NAT. RES. / (916)
319-2092
FN: 0003871