BILL ANALYSIS �
SB 984
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SENATE THIRD READING
SB 984 (Simitian, et al.)
As Amended August 20, 2012
Majority vote
SENATE VOTE :37-0
NATURAL RESOURCES 8-0 APPROPRIATIONS 12-0
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|Ayes:|Chesbro, Knight, |Ayes:|Gatto, Blumenfield, |
| |Brownley, Dickinson, | |Bradford, |
| |Halderman, Huffman, | |Charles Calderon, Campos, |
| |Monning, Skinner | |Davis, Fuentes, Hall, |
| | | |Hill, Cedillo, Mitchell, |
| | | |Solorio |
| | | | |
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SUMMARY : Establishes procedures for 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. The procedures apply 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) Specifies that disclosure is not required for any trade secret,
location of archeological sites or sacred lands, or any other
information subject to the disclosure restrictions in the
California Public Records Act.
3) Sunsets January 1, 2016.
4) Makes enactment of the bill contingent on enactment of AB 1570
(Perea).
EXISTING LAW :
1) Requires lead agencies with the principal responsibility for
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carrying out or approving a proposed discretionary project to
prepare a negative declaration, mitigated negative declaration,
or environmental impact report (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:
1)Unknown costs to state agencies, to the extent they are lead CEQA
permitting agencies for projects for which the lead agency must
concurrently prepare the 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.
2)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
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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 : Generally, CEQA actions taken by 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
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 agency 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 when the applicant requests, the agency consents,
and the applicant agrees to pay the agency's costs.
This bill is nearly identical to AB 1570 (Perea), which was approved
by the Assembly Natural Resources Committee on April 16, 2012, and
now is pending on the Senate Floor.
Analysis Prepared by : Lawrence Lingbloom / NAT. RES. / (916)
319-2092 FN: 0005191
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