BILL ANALYSIS �
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | SB 1380|
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THIRD READING
Bill No: SB 1380
Author: Rubio (D), et al
Amended: 4/10/12
Vote: 21
SENATE ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY COMMITTEE : 6-0, 4/30/12
AYES: Simitian, Strickland, Blakeslee, Hancock, Kehoe,
Lowenthal
NO VOTE RECORDED: Pavley
SUBJECT : Environmental quality: urbanized bicycle plans
SOURCE : Silicon Valley Leadership Group
DIGEST : This bill exempts from the California
Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) a bicycle plan prepared
pursuant to Streets and Highways Code Section 891.2 for an
urbanized area for restriping of streets and highways,
bicycle parking and storage, signal timing to improve
street and highway intersection operations, and related
signage for bicycles, pedestrians, and vehicles, as
specified. Sunsets on January 1, 2018.
ANALYSIS : 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. CEQA also requires a lead agency to
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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. CEQA requires the lead agencies to make
specified findings in an EIR. Existing law establishes
statutes and regulations related to numerous environmental
issues. Existing law authorizes a city, county, or city
and county to prepare a bicycle transportation plan that
includes specified elements.
This bill exempts a bicycle transportation plan prepared
pursuant to Streets and Highways Code Section 891.2 for an
urbanized area for restriping of streets and highways,
bicycle parking and storage, signal timing to improve
street and highway intersection operations, and related
signage for bicycles, pedestrians, and vehicles. Prior to
determining that a project is exempt, the lead agency shall
do both of the following:
1. Hold noticed public hearings in areas affected by the
bicycle transportation plan to hear and respond to
public comments. Publication of the notice shall be no
fewer times that required by Government Code Section
6061, by the public agency in a newspaper of general
circulation in the area affected by the proposed
project. If more than one area will be affected, the
notice shall be published in the newspaper of largest
circulation from among the newspapers of general
circulation in those areas.
2. Include measures in the bicycle transportation plan to
mitigate potential bicycle and pedestrian safety
impacts.
This bill sunsets on January 1, 2018.
Background
San Francisco bicycle plan litigation . The San Francisco
Board of Supervisors adopted the 2005 Bicycle Plan June 7,
2005, and determined that the plan was exempt from CEQA
because there was no possibility that it would have
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significant impacts on the environment. The San Francisco
County Transportation Authority Commission (composed
exclusively of members of the board of supervisors) adopted
the bicycle plan's "Network Improvement Document," a
five-year plan for funding and implementing the Bicycle
Plan, June 21, 2005.
Petitioners challenged adoption of the 2005 Bicycle Plan
and Network Improvement Document under CEQA, and the Court
granted the Petitioner's Petition, finding that the Plan
and Document should have been reviewed under CEQA together
as one project - and that considered as a whole could have
a significant impact on the environment. The Court issued
a Preemptory Writ of Mandate June 18, 2007, requiring San
Francisco to conduct adequate environmental review of the
Plan and Document, and enjoined the city from implementing
any individual improvement projects until the review was
completed.
The San Francisco planning department published a draft EIR
November 26, 2008. According to the Court, "The bulk of
the Draft EIR's analysis concerned impacts on
transportation, particularly impacts from the 60 near-term
improvements on 63 different intersections located
throughout San Francisco, as well as impacts on 12 'transit
corridors,' 10 transit 'spot studies,' and 13 parking and
loading corridors." The Court also noted that the EIR
identified mitigation measures to minimize or eliminate
many of the significant environmental impacts identified in
the EIR, including measures such as adding or modifying
traffic signals at intersections (lengthening green light
time or adding a green arrow), or modifying roadway
striping (changing shared lanes to exclusive turn lanes,
narrowing travel lanes, or eliminating or restricting
on-street parking).
The Planning Commission certified the EIR June 25, 2009;
the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) board of
directors adopted the 2009 Bicycle Plan and approved the
traffic changes necessary to implement 45 of the 60
improvements, and made the required CEQA findings. The
Petitioners appealed the Planning Commissioner's
certification of the EIR to the Board of Supervisors July
15, 2009; and the Board of Supervisors heard the appeals
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August 4, 2009, and denied the appeals. The city filed a
Notice of Determination August 14, 2009, and filed a Return
to the Writ of Mandate September 18, 2009, to which the
Petitioners objected. The Court found that the city
complied with CEQA and the Court's orders to conduct
environmental review of the Bicycle Plan, including its
policies and goals and individual improvement projects
August 6, 2010.
Comments
Purpose of the bill . According to the Silicon Valley
Leadership Group, the bill's sponsor, "litigation under
CEQA challenging bicycle transportation plans can be
expensive and delay or prevent adoption of such plans. In
San Francisco, for example, San Francisco's MTA proposed a
bicycle transportation plan that would add 34 miles of new
bikes lanes, nearly doubling the current number, to enable
key public safety improvements for bicyclists and
pedestrians in San Francisco. After MTA approved the plan,
an opponent filed a CEQA lawsuit and in 2006 a trial court
issued an injunction preventing implementation of the plan.
In 2006, a San Francisco Examiner article estimated that
in the 2006 planning year alone the injunction would result
in MTA losing $1.1 million in grants to implement the plan.
Litigation proceeded slowly, and the trial court did not
fully lift the injunction until 2010 thereby allowing MTA
to complete implementation of the bike plan. After nearly
four years of delay due to the CEQA litigation, the trial
court ruled that 'the City did not abuse its discretion in
certifying the EIR as in compliance with CEQA, nor did the
City abuse its discretion by the process of approving the
EIR.' This bill would reduce the potential for litigation
delays such as those experienced by San Francisco's MTA.
As a result, it would help to prevent the loss of grant
money that may otherwise be available to achieve health and
safety benefits associated with improving a region's
bicycle transportation network."
FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: No
Local: No
SUPPORT : (Verified 5/3/12)
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Silicon Valley Leadership Group (source)
California Bicycle Coalition
California Council for Environmental and Economic Balance
California Retailers Association
Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition
OPPOSITION : (Verified 5/3/12)
California Coastal Protection Network
California Native Plant Society
Defenders of Wildlife
Planning and Conservation League
Sierra Club California
DLW:mw:n 5/10/12 Senate Floor Analyses
SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: SEE ABOVE
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