Bill Text: CA AB323 | 2015-2016 | Regular Session | Chaptered
Bill Title: California Environmental Quality Act: exemption: roadway improvement.
Spectrum: Moderate Partisan Bill (Republican 14-3-1)
Status: (Passed) 2015-07-06 - Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter 52, Statutes of 2015. [AB323 Detail]
Download: California-2015-AB323-Chaptered.html
BILL NUMBER: AB 323 CHAPTERED
BILL TEXT
CHAPTER 52
FILED WITH SECRETARY OF STATE JULY 6, 2015
APPROVED BY GOVERNOR JULY 6, 2015
PASSED THE SENATE JUNE 22, 2015
PASSED THE ASSEMBLY APRIL 27, 2015
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY APRIL 6, 2015
INTRODUCED BY Assembly Member Olsen
(Coauthors: Assembly Members Achadjian, Travis Allen, Baker,
Bigelow, Chávez, Gallagher, Grove, Lackey, Linder, Maienschein,
Mayes, Obernolte, and Perea)
(Coauthors: Senators Bates, Galgiani, Huff, and Vidak)
FEBRUARY 13, 2015
An act to amend Section 21080.37 of the Public Resources Code
relating to the California Environmental Quality Act.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
AB 323, Olsen. California Environmental Quality Act: exemption:
roadway improvement.
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, until January 1, 2016, exempts a project or an activity to
repair, maintain, or make minor alterations to an existing roadway,
as defined, if the project or activity is carried out by a city or
county with a population of less than 100,000 persons to improve
public safety and meets other specified requirements.
This bill would extend the above exemption to January 1, 2020.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. Section 21080.37 of the Public Resources Code is
amended to read:
21080.37. (a) This division does not apply to a project or an
activity to repair, maintain, or make minor alterations to an
existing roadway if all of the following conditions are met:
(1) The project is carried out by a city or county with a
population of less than 100,000 persons to improve public safety.
(2) (A) The project does not cross a waterway.
(B) For purposes of this paragraph, "waterway" means a bay,
estuary, lake, pond, river, slough, or a perennial, intermittent, or
ephemeral stream, lake, or estuarine-marine shoreline.
(3) The project involves negligible or no expansion of an existing
use beyond that existing at the time of the lead agency's
determination.
(4) The roadway is not a state roadway.
(5) (A) The site of the project does not contain wetlands or
riparian areas and does not have significant value as a wildlife
habitat, and the project does not harm any species protected by the
federal Endangered Species Act of 1973 (16 U.S.C. Sec. 1531 et seq.),
the Native Plant Protection Act (Chapter 10 (commencing with Section
1900) of Division 2 of the Fish and Game Code), or the California
Endangered Species Act (Chapter 1.5 (commencing with Section 2050) of
Division 3 of the Fish and Game Code), and the project does not
cause the destruction or removal of any species protected by a local
ordinance.
(B) For the purposes of this paragraph:
(i) "Riparian areas" mean those areas transitional between
terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems and that are distinguished by
gradients in biophysical conditions, ecological processes, and biota.
A riparian area is an area through which surface and subsurface
hydrology connect waterbodies with their adjacent uplands. A riparian
area includes those portions of terrestrial ecosystems that
significantly influence exchanges of energy and matter with aquatic
ecosystems. A riparian area is adjacent to perennial, intermittent,
and ephemeral streams, lakes, and estuarine-marine shorelines.
(ii) "Significant value as a wildlife habitat" includes wildlife
habitat of national, statewide, regional, or local importance;
habitat for species protected by the federal Endangered Species Act
of 1973 (16 U.S.C. Sec. 1531, et seq.), the California Endangered
Species Act (Chapter 1.5 (commencing with Section 2050) of Division 3
of the Fish and Game Code), or the Native Plant Protection Act
(Chapter 10 (commencing with Section 1900) of Division 2 of the Fish
and Game Code); habitat identified as candidate, fully protected,
sensitive, or species of special status by local, state, or federal
agencies; or habitat essential to the movement of resident or
migratory wildlife.
(iii) "Wetlands" has the same meaning as in the United States Fish
and Wildlife Service Manual, Part 660 FW 2 (June 21, 1993).
(iv) "Wildlife habitat" means the ecological communities upon
which wild animals, birds, plants, fish, amphibians, and
invertebrates depend for their conservation and protection.
(6) The project does not impact cultural resources.
(7) The roadway does not affect scenic resources, as provided
pursuant to subdivision (c) of Section 21084.
(b) Prior to determining that a project is exempt pursuant to this
section, the lead agency shall do both of the following:
(1) Include measures in the project to mitigate potential
vehicular traffic and safety impacts and bicycle and pedestrian
safety impacts.
(2) Hold a noticed public hearing on the project to hear and
respond to public comments. The hearing on the project may be
conducted with another noticed lead agency public hearing.
Publication of the notice shall be no fewer times than required by
Section 6061 of the Government Code, by the public agency in a
newspaper of general circulation in the area.
(c) For purposes of this section, "roadway" means a roadway as
defined pursuant to Section 530 of the Vehicle Code and the
previously graded and maintained shoulder that is within a roadway
right-of-way of no more than five feet from the edge of the roadway.
(d) Whenever a local agency determines that a project is not
subject to this division pursuant to this section, and it approves or
determines to carry out that project, the local agency shall file a
notice with the Office of Planning and Research, and with the county
clerk in the county in which the project will be located in the
manner specified in subdivisions (b) and (c) of Section 21152.
(e) This section shall remain in effect only until January 1,
2020, and as of that date is repealed, unless a later enacted
statute, that is enacted before January 1, 2020, deletes or extends
that date.
