CEQA Legislation: 1992-2001

2001 Revisions and Additions to CEQA

      AB 369 (Dutra) Affordable housing development projects.  Existing law requires local agencies to make specified findings before disapproving or conditionally approving certain housing development projects affordable to very low, low-, or moderate-income households, as that term is defined, and authorizes a court to order compliance with that requirement. This bill would delete the term "affordable" from those provisions and make the provisions applicable to housing for very low, low-, and moderate-income households. The bill would revise the provisions for enforcement to authorize the court to award specified costs and attorney fees.  (Signed by Governor, Chapter 237, Statutes of 2001.)

   AB 436 (Chan) Resources and environmental protection: CEQA: focused environmental impact reports.   This bill would, until January 1, 2005, authorize a focused environmental impact report to be prepared for a project in the City of Oakland that consists of multiple-family residential development, or a residential and commercial or retail mixed-use development with not more than 25% of the total floor area of the project utilized as retail space, if certain conditions are met, including a condition that the Oakland City Council vote to authorize the implementation of the bill by voting to approve the practice of preparing focused environmental impact reports in specified central business target housing areas. The bill would also exclude that vote and a related determination by the council from the definition of "project" for the purposes of CEQA. By imposing a duty on the City of Oakland to makeadditional determinations, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program.  (Signed by the Governor, Chapter 701, Statutes of 2001.)

   AB 1532 (Pavley) Environmental Quality   The existing California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) requires that transportation information resulting from the reporting or monitoring program required to be adopted by a public agency pursuant to a specified provision of CEQA be submitted to the transportation planning agency in the region where the project is located and to the Department of Transportation when the project has impacts that are of statewide, regional, or areawide significance according to specified criteria.
  This bill would require that the transportation information be submitted to the transportation planning agency in the region where the project is located and to the Department of Transportation for a project of statewide, regional, or areawide significance according tospecified criteria.
  (2) CEQA further requires that a lead agency call at least one scoping meeting for a proposed project that may affect highways or other facilities under the jurisdiction of the Department of Transportation if the meeting is requested by the department. CEQA authorizes a lead agency to charge and collect a reasonable fee from any person proposing a project to recover the estimated costs incurred by the lead agency in preparing a negative declaration or environmental impact report and for procedures necessary to comply with CEQA for the project. Existing law requires specified notices to be mailed to any person who has filed a written request for notices with either the clerk of the governing body or, if there is no governing body, the director of the agency.
  This bill would additionally require a lead agency to call at least one scoping meeting for a project of statewide, regional, or areawide significance and would require the lead agency to provide notice of the scoping meeting to specified entities, thereby imposing a state-mandated local program. The bill would require a lead agency to mail the notice of the scoping meeting to a person who has filed a written request for notices with specified entities.  (Signed by the Governor, Chapter 867, Statutes of 2001.)

   SB 244 (Speier) Environmental quality: airport expansion and enlargement projects. This bill would provide that the carrying out or approval of a plan for a project that expands or enlarges an existing publicly owned airport by any political subdivision constitutes carrying out or approving a project for the purposes of that definition.
  Additionally, this bill would require that the public review period for a draft environmental impact report prepared for a project involving the expansion or enlargement of a publicly owned airport requiring the acquisition of any tide and submerged lands or other lands subject to the public trust for commerce, navigation, or fisheries, or any interest therein, not be less than 120 days. To the extent the bill would lengthen the public review period for a draft environmental impact report, and thereby generate additional public comment, it would impose a state-mandated local program.  (Signed by the Governor, Chapter 534, Statutes of 2001.)

   SB 951 (Committee on Governmental Organization) State property.  This bill would authorize the Director of General Services to sell, exchange, lease, or transfer specified parcels of state property. The bill would exempt the sale, exchange, lease, or transfer of the parcels from specified provisions of the California Environmental Quality Act. This bill would require that the net proceeds be deposited in the General Fund, as provided, and would require the reservation of mineral rights, as specified. (Signed by the Governor, Chapter 610, Statutes of 2001.)

Bills Signed Into Law: 1992-2002
Summaries of Chaptered Bills and the Public Resources Code Sections Affected

    2001 Chaptered Bills
    2000 Chaptered Bills
    1999 Chaptered Bills
    1998 Chaptered Bills
    1997 Chaptered Bills
    1996 Chaptered Bills
    1995 Chaptered Bills
    1994 Chaptered Bills
    1993 Chaptered Bills
    1992 Chaptered Bills