California Environmental Quality Act: defensible space.

Plain English Breakdown

The official source material does not provide specific details on how lead agencies determine if projects qualify for the exemption or which public agencies will be affected.

California Environmental Quality Act: Defensible Space Exemption

The bill exempts public agency projects related to maintaining defensible space around buildings from the California Environmental Quality Act's requirements for environmental impact reports.

What This Bill Does

• Exempts public agency projects that maintain defensible space around structures in wildfire-prone areas from needing an environmental impact report under CEQA.

Who It Names or Affects

• Public agencies undertaking or approving projects related to maintaining defensible space around buildings.
• People who own, lease, control, operate, or maintain structures within certain areas where defensible space is required.

Terms To Know

California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA)

A law that requires government agencies to assess the environmental effects of their projects before they start them.

Defensible space

An area around a building where plants and other things are removed or managed to reduce fire risk.

Limits and Unknowns

• The bill does not specify which public agencies will be affected by this exemption.
• It is unclear how lead agencies determine if projects qualify for the exemption.

Official Summary Text

SB 426, as introduced, Alvarado-Gil.
California Environmental Quality Act: defensible space.
The California Environmental Quality Act 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.
Existing law requires a person who owns, leases, controls, operates, or maintains specified structures within certain areas to maintain
a defensible space around the structures meeting certain requirements.
This bill would exempt from CEQA projects undertaken or approved by a public agency for purposes of maintaining defensible space to comply with the above requirements.
Because a lead agency would be required to determine the applicability of the exemption, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program.
The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement.
This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.

Current Bill Text

Download Bill PDF