September 2013

In a flurry of eleventh-hour activity following Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg’s withdrawal of SB 731 from consideration (see 9/13/13 post “Steinberg Drops Statewide CEQA Reform Bill (SB 731) After Meeting with Governor Brown,” by Arthur F. Coon), both houses of the California Legislature passed an amended Senate Bill 743 on September 12, 2013.  SB 743 enacts a number of changes to the California Environmental Quality Act (“CEQA”; Pub. Resources Code, § 21000, et seq.) that are designed to “modernize” the statute and streamline some of its procedures for certain projects.  Demonstrating that politics is “the art of the possible,” Senator Steinberg was successful, in the waning hours of the legislative session, in importing several generally-applicable CEQA reform provisions from former SB 731 into SB 743, whose primary focus theretofore had been easing the CEQA review path for a new Sacramento Kings arena.  After this bit of legislative “sausage making” (which is expected to be followed by Governor Brown’s signature), the revised SB 743 includes the following generally-applicable CEQA provisions:
Continue Reading CEQA, Sausages, And The Art of The Possible: A Closer Look at SB 743’s General CEQA Reform Provisions

Proposed legislative CEQA reform for 2013 has gone out, not with a bang, but with a … dribble?  After meeting with Governor Brown, on September 11, 2013, Senator Darrell Steinberg abruptly withdrew his much-ballyhooed CEQA “reform” bill, SB 731, from consideration, canceling a hearing set before the Committee on Local Government, and threw his support behind a much different CEQA bill, SB 743, which paves the way for a new downtown Sacramento Kings arena.
Continue Reading Steinberg Drops Statewide CEQA Reform Bill (SB 731) After Meeting With Governor Brown

In a partially published opinion filed August 19, 2013, the Third District Court of Appeal reversed a judgment denying a writ petition challenging a Wal-MartSupercenterthat would replace an existing Wal-Mart store.  Friends of Oroville v. City of Oroville (8/19/13) 219 Cal.App.4th 832, No. C070448.  In the published portion of its opinion, the Court held the City’s EIR inadequately analyzed the project’s GHG emissions because substantial evidence did not support its finding that such emissions would be less than significant after mitigation.
Continue Reading Third District Holds CEQA Analysis of GHG Emissions Was Inadequately Quantified To Support EIR’s Mitigation Conclusion in Friends of Oroville