California Environmental Quality Act: guidelines: study.

Plain English Breakdown

The official source does not provide detailed information on how the study will be conducted or what specific aspects of regulatory certainty and environmental review processes it will cover.

Study of California Environmental Quality Act Guidelines

This law requires a study to evaluate how fixed CEQA guidelines might affect future projects and environmental reviews.

What This Bill Does

• Requires the Office of Land Use and Climate Innovation to conduct a study on how 'locked-in' CEQA guidelines could impact regulatory certainty for project proponents, lead agencies, and stakeholders.
• The study will assess how these fixed guidelines may influence the speed and efficiency of environmental review processes under CEQA.

Who It Names or Affects

• People and agencies involved in planning projects that need CEQA review.
• The Office of Land Use and Climate Innovation and other government offices responsible for environmental reviews.

Terms To Know

Environmental Impact Report

A document explaining the effects a project might have on the environment and how to reduce those effects.

CEQA Guidelines

Rules set by the Office of Land Use and Climate Innovation for implementing CEQA.

Limits and Unknowns

• The study must be completed before January 1, 2027.
• After January 1, 2028, these requirements will no longer exist.

Official Summary Text

SB 232, as amended, Seyarto.
California Environmental Quality Act: guidelines: study.
The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) requires a lead agency, as defined, to prepare, or cause to be prepared, and certify the completion of an environmental impact report 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 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 Office of Land Use and Climate Innovation, formerly named the Office of Planning and Research, to prepare and develop, and the
Secretary of the Natural Resources Agency to certify and adopt, guidelines for the implementation of CEQA. The CEQA guidelines require a lead agency, immediately after deciding that an environmental impact report is required for a project, to send a notice of preparation stating that an environmental impact report will be prepared to the office and each responsible and trustee agency, as specified.
This bill would require the office to conduct a study to, among other things, evaluate how locked-in guidelines could impact regulatory certainty for
future
project proponents, lead agencies, and stakeholders and assess how locked-in guidelines could affect the speed and efficiency of the environmental review process pursuant to CEQA. The bill would define “locked-in guidelines” as CEQA guidelines, that are in effect at the time of the first issuance of the notice
of preparation for a project, that apply to the project throughout the course of the environmental review process pursuant to CEQA, regardless of changes in the guidelines that occur after the first issuance of the notice of preparation. The bill would require, on or before January 1, 2027, the office to submit a report to the Governor and the Legislature on the study. The bill would repeal these provisions on January 1, 2028.

Current Bill Text

Download Bill PDF