California Environmental Quality Act: advanced manufacturing facilities: exemption.

Plain English Breakdown

The bill text does not provide specific details on how 'final tier manufacturing' is defined.

California Environmental Quality Act: Advanced Manufacturing Facilities Exemption

The bill revises the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) to add new requirements and exemptions for advanced manufacturing facilities, family day care homes, and certain rezoning activities related to tourism facilities.

What This Bill Does

• Revises the definition of 'natural and protected lands' under CEQA to include habitats for certain species identified as candidate, sensitive, or special status by state or federal agencies.
• Adds a new exemption from CEQA for advanced manufacturing facility projects that are used exclusively for final tier manufacturing and certified by the Governor.
• Requires applicants of exempted advanced manufacturing projects to enter into community benefits agreements and comply with labor requirements.
• Adds a new exemption from CEQA for family day care homes that are not located in residential areas or within 3,200 feet of oil or gas extraction facilities.
• Makes CEQA applicable to rezoning activities that allow construction of tourism facilities with increased floor area, height, density, intensity, or development capacity.

Who It Names or Affects

• Advanced manufacturing facility applicants and operators
• Local government agencies responsible for environmental reviews
• Family day care home owners and operators

Terms To Know

Environmental Impact Report (EIR)

A document that analyzes the potential environmental effects of a project.

Community Benefits Agreement

An agreement between developers and community groups to provide benefits like jobs, affordable housing, or public improvements in exchange for development approval.

Limits and Unknowns

• The bill does not specify the exact criteria for 'final tier manufacturing'.
• It is unclear how the new requirements will be enforced by local agencies.
• The impact of making CEQA applicable to certain rezoning activities on tourism facilities remains uncertain.

Official Summary Text

SB 954, as amended, Blakespear.
California Environmental Quality Act: advanced manufacturing facilities: exemption.
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 defines various terms, including “natural and protected lands” for its purposes.
This bill would revise the definition of that term to include habitats for protected species identified as candidate, sensitive, or species of special status by state or federal agencies.
CEQA exempts from its requirement projects that consist exclusively of a day care center that is not located in a residential area and projects that consist exclusively of an advanced manufacturing facility located on a site zoned exclusively for industrial uses.
This bill would additionally exempt projects consisting exclusively of a family day care home, as defined. The bill would, for the exemption for the day care center and family day care home,
instead,
instead
require the projects for those facilities not
be located in an area zoned for industrial use or within 3,200 feet of a facility that actively extracts or refines oil or natural gas in order for the exemption to apply. The bill would revise the exemption for advanced manufacturing facility projects to require those projects to
meet certain requirements
be used exclusively for final tier manufacturing, as defined,
and for the Governor to certify the project, as provided. The bill would require an applicant of an advanced manufacturing project that is exempted from CEQA under the bill’s requirement to enter into a bona fide community benefits agreement, as provided, and to comply with certain labor requirements, as provided. The bill would require
to
the
lead agency, before determining that an advanced manufacturing project is exempt from CEQA, to hold at least one public hearing on the project and to ensure that the applicant complies with the requirement to enter into a bona fide community benefits agreement and the labor requirements.
CEQA
also exempts from its requirements rezoning the
generally does not apply to a rezoning that
implements
of
the schedule of actions contained in an approved housing
element. CEQA provides that this exemption does not apply to rezoning that
element, unless the rezoning
would allow for the construction of certain facilities, including oil and gas infrastructure.
This bill would
provide that the above exemption also does not apply
make CEQA applicable
to
a
rezoning
of this kind
that authorizes a tourism facility use that was not permitted before the rezoning or authorizes an increase in the allowable floor area, height, density, intensity, or development capacity of a tourism facility use beyond that permitted under the site’s zoning designation in effect before the
rezoning or before January 1, 2027, whichever is later, except as provided,
and would repeal the
exception from the exemption for rezoning
or
that would allow for the construction of oil and gas
infrastructures.
infrastructure.
Because the bill would imposes additional duties on a lead agency, 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