Governor Newsom’s Executive Order N-54-20 makes a few procedural changes to the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) for projects undergoing or deemed exempt from CEQA for a period of 60 days, including:
- Suspending the following notice requirements:
- The requirement to physically post notices in the Clerk’s office (note - this does NOT suspend other existing requirements for those CEQA notices to be mailed, e-mailed, published, or posted near and at the site of the project)
- The requirement to post a Notice of Exemption or Notice of Decision (note – it is not clear what impact this suspension has on the statute of limitations for challenging the project nor whether those notices must be posted once the 60-day suspension expires)
Both suspensions are conditioned upon posting the materials on the agency’s public website, submitting the materials to the State Clearinghouse, and providing outreach to individual and entities known to be interested in the project. And, these suspensions do not impact existing timelines for public review.
- Suspending the timelines for Native American tribes to request, and lead agencies to initiate, consultation under AB 52. This effectively provides an extra 60 days for that consultation process to begin.