Background
The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) seeks to improve state and local decision making by establishing detailed analytical and public review procedures for projects that may have a significant impact on the environment. Modeled after the federal National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) of 1969, CEQA establishes a more rigorous review process, requires mitigation of a project’s environmental impacts, and is generally more litigious with lower barriers to challenge decisions.
Before approving a project, CEQA requires state and local agencies to review the potential environmental impacts of a proposed discretionary project, disclose those impacts to decision-makers and the general public, and to mitigate significant impacts on the environment to the extent feasible.
The Controversy
CEQA’s substantive and procedural requirements are found in Division 13 of the California Public Resources Code and in the CEQA Guidelines established by the Governor’s Office of Planning and Research (OPR) and the California the Natural Resources Agency.
Despite its commendable objectives, CEQA is highly controversial, as it is not uncommon for the process to result in costly litigation and project delays. Increasingly, these delays are intended to delay a project past the point of economic viability or to extract concessions unrelated to the environment from the project proponent. At the same time, CEQA is an incredibly powerful tool to protect and preserve the unique characteristics of rural California and ensure that a project mitigates its impacts on the environment.
RCRC Objectives
With that in mind, RCRC is mindful of the need to streamline the CEQA process and resist new provisions that (1) complicate the administrative process; (2) increase the risk of actionable procedural violations; or (3) add to costs of the CEQA process.
RCRC supports efforts to streamline the CEQA process to strengthen the certainty of required timelines and reduce the risk of litigation delays. RCRC also supports facilitation of early agency and public participation in the CEQA process to allow the lead agency and project proponents to more fully address environmental concerns resulting from a proposed project and to facilitate preparation of a legally adequate environmental document. RCRC opposes proposals limiting the authority provided to lead agencies under CEQA, increasing procedural and substantive complexity, or adding new avenues to attack and delay projects.