Legislature Winnows CEQA Bills

Out of 26 CEQA bills introduced early this year, eight have met the Legislature's May 31 deadline to move from the state Senate to the Assembly or vice versa, and therefore are still considered viable.  (For more details, and an update on these bills, see our June 14 post).  For the most part, these bills would increase CEQA's procedural requirements.

The survivors include:

• Senate Bill 731, the "CEQA Modernization Act of 2013" (see prior post)
• Assembly Bill 37, which would require lead agencies to prepare their records of proceedings at the same time they prepare environmental documents for certain projects
• Assembly Bill 543, which would require translation of certain CEQA notices and CEQA document summaries if 25% of nearby residents are non-English-speaking
• Senate Bill 436 and Assembly Bill 380, which would impose additional CEQA notice and filing requirements.

CEQA-related bills that did not make the May 31 cut included:

• Senate Bill 787, the same far-reaching and controversial CEQA reform proposal that first surfaced in August 2012
• Proposals for specialized divisions within superior courts to handle CEQA cases
• Efforts to overturn recent appellate court decisions holding that CEQA concerns the effects of projects on the environment -- not effects of the environment on projects
• Three bills, or portions of those bills, that would have extended the 2011 Environmental Leadership Act's CEQA streamlining provisions to additional categories of projects