BILL NUMBER: SB 52 AMENDED
BILL TEXT
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY JUNE 26, 2012
AMENDED IN SENATE JANUARY 31, 2012
AMENDED IN SENATE JANUARY 12, 2012
AMENDED IN SENATE JANUARY 4, 2012
INTRODUCED BY Senator Steinberg
(Coauthors: Assembly Members Buchanan and Gordon)
DECEMBER 15, 2010
An act to amend Sections 21178, 21180, 21181, 21183, 21185, 21187,
and 21189.2 of the Public Resources Code, relating to environmental
quality.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
SB 52, as amended, Steinberg. Environmental quality: jobs and
economic improvement.
(1) 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 (EIR) 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 establishes procedures for creating the administrative record
and judicial review procedure for any action or proceeding brought
to challenge the lead agency's decision to certify the EIR or to
grant project approvals.
The Jobs and Economic Improvement Through Environmental Leadership
Act of 2011 establishes alternative procedures for creating the
administrative record and specified judicial review procedures for
the judicial review of the EIR and approvals granted for a leadership
project related to the development of a residential, retail,
commercial, sports, cultural, entertainment, or recreational use
project, or clean renewable energy or clean energy manufacturing
project. The act authorizes the Governor, upon application, to
certify a leadership project for streamlining pursuant to the act if
certain conditions are met.
The act requires that the project result in a minimum investment
of $100,000,000 in California upon completion of construction and not
result in any net additional emission of greenhouse gases, including
greenhouse gas emissions from employee transportation.
This bill would require instead that a project result in a minimum
investment of $100,000,000 spent on planning, design, and
construction of the project. The bill, in order to maximize public
health, environmental, and employment benefits, would require a lead
agency to place the highest priority on feasible measures that will
reduce greenhouse gas emissions on the project site and in the
neighboring communities of the project site.
(2) The act requires a party seeking judicial review of the EIR to
bring concurrently other claims alleging a public agency has granted
land use approvals or a leadership project in violation of relevant
laws.
This bill would repeal this provision.
(3) The act requires the Judicial Council to report to the
Legislature on or before January 1, 2015, on the effects of the act,
including specific information on benefits, costs, and detriments.
The bill would require instead that the Judicial Council report to
the Legislature on the effects of the act on the administration of
justice. The bill also would make technical and clarifying changes.
Because a lead agency would be required to perform additional
actions, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program.
(4) 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.
Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes.
State-mandated local program: yes.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. Section 21178 of the Public Resources Code is amended
to read:
21178. The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:
(a) The overall unemployment rate in California is 12 percent, and
in certain regions of the state that rate exceeds 13 percent.
(b) The California Environmental Quality Act (Division 13
(commencing with Section 21000)) requires that the environmental
impacts of development projects be identified and mitigated.
(c) The act also guarantees the public an opportunity to review
and comment on the environmental impacts of a project and to
participate meaningfully in the development of mitigation measures
for potentially significant environmental impacts.
(d) There are large public and private projects under
consideration in various regions of the state that would replace old
and outmoded facilities with new job-creating facilities to meet
those regions' needs while also establishing new, cutting-edge
environmental benefits to those regions.
(e) These projects are publicly financed, privately financed, or
financed from revenues generated from the projects themselves that do
not require taxpayer financing.
(f) These projects further will generate thousands of full-time
jobs during construction and thousands of additional permanent jobs
once they are constructed and operating.
(g) These projects also present an unprecedented opportunity to
implement nation-leading innovative measures that will significantly
reduce traffic, air pollution, and other significant environmental
impacts, and fully mitigate the greenhouse gas emissions resulting
from passenger vehicle trips attributed to the project.
(h) These pollution reductions will be the best in the nation
compared to other comparable projects in the United States.
(i) The purpose of this act is to provide unique and unprecedented
streamlining benefits under the California Environmental Quality Act
for projects that provide the benefits described above for a limited
period of time to put people to work as soon as possible.
SEC. 2. Section 21180 of the Public Resources Code is amended to
read:
21180. For the purposes of this chapter, the following terms
shall have the following meanings:
(a) "Applicant" means a public or private entity or its
affiliates, or a person or entity that undertakes a public works
project or proposes a project, and its successors, heirs, and
assignees.
(b) (1) "Environmental leadership
development project," "leadership project," or "project" means a
project as described in Section 21065 that is one of the following:
(1)
(A) A residential, retail, commercial, sports,
cultural, entertainment, or recreational use project that is designed
to be certified as LEED silver or better by the United States Green
Building Council and that achieves and maintains a 10-percent greater
standard for transportation efficiency than for comparable projects.
These projects shall be located on an infill site. For a project
that is within a metropolitan planning organization for which a
sustainable communities strategy or alternative planning strategy is
in effect, the infill project shall be consistent with the general
use designation, density, building intensity, and applicable policies
specified for the project area in either a sustainable communities
strategy or an alternative planning strategy, for which the State Air
Resources Board, pursuant to subparagraph (H) of paragraph (2) of
subdivision (b) of Section 65080 of the Government Code, has accepted
a metropolitan planning organization's determination that the
sustainable communities strategy or the alternative planning strategy
would, if implemented, achieve the greenhouse gas emission reduction
targets.
(2)
(B) A clean renewable energy project that generates
electricity exclusively through wind or solar, but not including
waste incineration or conversion.
(3)
(C) A clean energy manufacturing project that
manufactures products, equipment, or components used for renewable
energy generation, energy efficiency, or for the production of clean
alternative fuel vehicles.
(2) This subdivision does not affect any requirement for a project
to comply with the California Green Building Standards Code (Part 11
of Title 24 of the California Code of Regulations), or any other
applicable law or regulation.
(c) "Transportation efficiency" means the number of private
automobile trips by employees, visitors, or customers of the
residential, retail, commercial, sports, cultural, entertainment, or
recreational use project divided by the total number of employees,
visitors, and customers.
SEC. 3. Section 21181 of the Public Resources Code is amended to
read:
21181. This chapter does not apply to a project if the applicant
fails to notify a lead agency prior to the release of the draft
environmental impact report for public comment that the applicant is
electing to proceed pursuant to this chapter. The lead agency shall
notify the Secretary of the Natural Resources Agency if the applicant
provides notification pursuant to this chapter.
SEC. 4. Section 21183 of the Public Resources Code is amended to
read:
21183. The Governor shall not certify a leadership project for
streamlining pursuant to this chapter unless all the following
conditions are met:
(a) The project will result in a minimum investment of one hundred
million dollars ($100,000,000) spent on planning, design, and
construction of the project.
(b) The project creates high-wage, highly skilled jobs that pay
prevailing wages and living wages and provide construction jobs and
permanent jobs for Californians, and helps reduce unemployment.
(c) The project does not result in any net additional emission of
greenhouse gases, including greenhouse gas emissions from employee
transportation, as determined by the State Air Resources Board
pursuant to Division 25.5 (commencing with Section 38500) of the
Health and Safety Code. To maximize public health, environmental, and
employment benefits, the lead agency shall place the highest
priority on feasible measures that will reduce greenhouse gas
emissions on the project site and in the neighboring communities of
the project site. Offset credits shall be employed by the applicant
only after feasible local emission reduction measures have been
implemented. The applicant shall, to the extent feasible, place the
highest priority on the purchase of offset credits that produce
emission reductions within the boundaries of an applicable air
pollution control district or air quality management district.
(d) The project applicant has entered into a binding and
enforceable agreement that all mitigation measures required pursuant
to this division to certify the project under this chapter shall be
conditions of approval of the project, and those conditions will be
fully enforceable by the lead agency or another agency designated by
the lead agency. In the case of environmental mitigation measures,
the applicant agrees, as an ongoing obligation, that those measures
will be monitored and enforced by the lead agency for the life of the
obligation.
(e) The project applicant agrees to pay the costs of the Court of
Appeal in hearing and deciding any case, including payment of the
costs for a special master if deemed appropriate by the court, in a
form and manner specified by the Judicial Council, as provided in the
Rules of Court adopted by the Judicial Council pursuant to
subdivision (b) of Section 21185.
(f) The project applicant agrees to pay the costs of preparing the
administrative record for the project concurrent with review and
consideration of the project pursuant to this division, in a form and
manner specified by the lead agency for the project.
SEC. 5. Section 21185 of the Public Resources Code is amended to
read:
21185. (a) Notwithstanding any other law, any action or
proceeding alleging that a lead agency has approved or is undertaking
a leadership project certified by the Governor in violation of this
division shall be conducted in accordance with the following
streamlining benefits:
(1) The action or proceeding shall be filed in the Court of Appeal
with geographic jurisdiction over the project.
(2) The Court of Appeal shall issue its decision on all petitions
for writ of mandate filed pursuant to this subdivision within 175
days of the filing of the last petition.
(3) The court may appoint a master to assist the court in managing
and processing the case.
(4) The court may order extensions of time only for good cause and
in order to promote the interests of justice.
(b) On or before July 1, 2012, the Judicial Council shall adopt
Rules of Court to implement this chapter.
SEC. 6. Section 21187 of the Public Resources Code is amended to
read:
21187. The draft and final environmental impact report shall
include a notice in no less than 12-point type stating the following:
"THIS EIR IS SUBJECT TO CHAPTER 6.5 (COMMENCING WITH SECTION
21178) OF DIVISION 13 OF THE PUBLIC RESOURCES CODE, WHICH PROVIDES,
AMONG OTHER THINGS, THAT ANY JUDICIAL ACTION CHALLENGING THE
CERTIFICATION OF THE EIR OR THE APPROVAL OF THE PROJECT DESCRIBED IN
THE EIR IS SUBJECT TO THE PROCEDURES SET FORTH IN CHAPTER 6.5 AND
MUST BE FILED WITH THE COURT OF APPEAL. A COPY OF CHAPTER 6.5 IS
INCLUDED IN THE APPENDIX TO THIS EIR."
SEC. 7. Section 21189.2 of the Public Resources Code is amended to
read:
21189.2. The Judicial Council shall report to the Legislature on
or before January 1, 2015, on the effects of this chapter on the
administration of justice.
SEC. 8. No reimbursement is required by this act pursuant to
Section 6 of Article XIII B of the California Constitution because a
local agency or school district has the authority to levy service
charges, fees, or assessments sufficient to pay for the program or
level of service mandated by this act, within the meaning of Section
17556 of the Government Code.