BILL NUMBER: SB 984 INTRODUCED
BILL TEXT
INTRODUCED BY Senators Simitian, Steinberg, and Strickland
JANUARY 30, 2012
An act to amend Section 21167.6 of, and to add Section 21167.6.2
to, the Public Resources Code, relating to environmental quality, and
declaring the urgency thereof, to take effect immediately.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
SB 984, as introduced, Simitian. Environmental quality: California
Environmental Quality Act: record of proceedings.
(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 a procedure for the preparation and certification of the
record of proceedings upon the filing of an action or proceeding
challenging a lead agency's action on the grounds of noncompliance
with CEQA.
This bill would require the lead agency, at the request of a
project applicant, to, among other things, prepare a record of
proceedings concurrently with the preparation and certification of an
EIR. Because the bill would require a lead agency to prepare the
record of proceedings as provided, this bill would impose a
state-mandated local program.
(2) 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.
(3) This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately
as an urgency statute.
Vote: 2/3. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes.
State-mandated local program: yes.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. Section 21167.6 of the Public Resources Code is amended
to read:
21167.6. Notwithstanding any other provision of
law, in all actions or proceedings brought pursuant to
Section 21167, except as provided for in Section 21167.6.2 or
those involving the Public Utilities Commission, all of the
following shall apply:
(a) At the time that the action or proceeding is filed, the
plaintiff or petitioner shall file a request that the respondent
public agency prepare the record of proceedings relating to the
subject of the action or proceeding. The request, together with the
complaint or petition, shall be served personally upon the public
agency not later than 10 business days from the date that the action
or proceeding was filed.
(b) (1) The public agency shall prepare and certify the record of
proceedings not later than 60 days from the date that the request
specified in subdivision (a) was served upon the public agency. Upon
certification, the public agency shall lodge a copy of the record of
proceedings with the court and shall serve on the parties notice that
the record of proceedings has been certified and lodged with the
court. The parties shall pay any reasonable costs or fees imposed for
the preparation of the record of proceedings in conformance with any
law or rule of court.
(2) The plaintiff or petitioner may elect to prepare the record of
proceedings or the parties may agree to an alternative method of
preparation of the record of proceedings, subject to certification of
its accuracy by the public agency, within the time limit specified
in this subdivision.
(c) The time limit established by subdivision (b) may be extended
only upon the stipulation of all parties who have been properly
served in the action or proceeding or upon order of the court.
Extensions shall be liberally granted by the court when the size of
the record of proceedings renders infeasible compliance with that
time limit. There is no limit on the number of extensions that may be
granted by the court, but no single extension shall exceed 60 days
unless the court determines that a longer extension is in the public
interest.
(d) If the public agency fails to prepare and certify the record
within the time limit established in paragraph (1) of subdivision
(b), or any continuances of that time limit, the plaintiff or
petitioner may move for sanctions, and the court may, upon that
motion, grant appropriate sanctions.
(e) The record of proceedings shall include, but is not limited
to, all of the following items:
(1) All project application materials.
(2) All staff reports and related documents prepared by the
respondent public agency with respect to its compliance with the
substantive and procedural requirements of this division and with
respect to the action on the project.
(3) All staff reports and related documents prepared by the
respondent public agency and written testimony or documents submitted
by any person relevant to any findings or statement of overriding
considerations adopted by the respondent agency pursuant to this
division.
(4) Any transcript or minutes of the proceedings at which the
decisionmaking body of the respondent public agency heard testimony
on, or considered any environmental document on, the project, and any
transcript or minutes of proceedings before any advisory body to the
respondent public agency that were presented to the decisionmaking
body prior to action on the environmental documents or on the
project.
(5) All notices issued by the respondent public agency to comply
with this division or with any other law governing the processing and
approval of the project.
(6) All written comments received in response to, or in connection
with, environmental documents prepared for the project, including
responses to the notice of preparation.
(7) All written evidence or correspondence submitted to, or
transferred from, the respondent public agency with respect to
compliance with this division or with respect to the project.
(8) Any proposed decisions or findings submitted to the
decisionmaking body of the respondent public agency by its staff, or
the project proponent, project opponents, or other persons.
(9) The documentation of the final public agency decision,
including the final environmental impact report, mitigated negative
declaration, or negative declaration, and all documents, in addition
to those referenced in paragraph (3), cited or relied on in the
findings or in a statement of overriding considerations adopted
pursuant to this division.
(10) Any other written materials relevant to the respondent public
agency's compliance with this division or to its decision on the
merits of the project, including the initial study, any drafts of any
environmental document, or portions thereof, that have been released
for public review, and copies of studies or other documents relied
upon in any environmental document prepared for the project and
either made available to the public during the public review period
or included in the respondent public agency's files on the project,
and all internal agency communications, including staff notes and
memoranda related to the project or to compliance with this division.
(11) The full written record before any inferior administrative
decisionmaking body whose decision was appealed to a superior
administrative decisionmaking body prior to the filing of litigation.
(f) In preparing the record of proceedings, the party preparing
the record shall strive to do so at reasonable cost in light of the
scope of the record.
(g) The clerk of the superior court shall prepare and certify the
clerk's transcript on appeal not later than 60 days from the date
that the notice designating the papers or records to be included in
the clerk's transcript was filed with the superior court, if the
party or parties pay any costs or fees for the preparation of the
clerk's transcript imposed in conformance with any law or rules of
court. Nothing in this subdivision precludes an election to proceed
by appendix, as provided in Rule 8.124 of the California Rules of
Court.
(h) Extensions of the period for the filing of any brief on appeal
may be allowed only by stipulation of the parties or by order of the
court for good cause shown. Extensions for the filing of a brief on
appeal shall be limited to one 30-day extension for the preparation
of an opening brief, and one 30-day extension for the preparation of
a responding brief, except that the court may grant a longer
extension or additional extensions if it determines that there is a
substantial likelihood of settlement that would avoid the necessity
of completing the appeal.
(i) At the completion of the filing of briefs on appeal, the
appellant shall notify the court of the completion of the filing of
briefs, whereupon the clerk of the reviewing court shall set the
appeal for hearing on the first available calendar date.
SEC. 2. Section 21167.6.2 is added to the Public Resources Code,
to read:
21167.6.2. (a) Notwithstanding Section 21167.6, the lead agency,
upon the written request of a project applicant, shall prepare and
certify the record of proceedings for an environmental impact report
in the following manner:
(1) The lead agency for the project shall prepare the record of
proceedings pursuant to this division concurrently with the
administrative process.
(2) All documents and other materials placed in the record of
proceedings shall be posted on, and be downloadable from, an Internet
Web site maintained by the lead agency commencing with the date of
the release of the draft environmental impact report.
(3) The lead agency shall make available to the public in a
readily accessible electronic format the draft environmental impact
report and all other documents submitted to, or relied on by, the
lead agency in the preparation of the draft environmental impact
report.
(4) A document prepared by the lead agency or submitted by the
applicant after the date of the release of the draft environmental
impact report that is a part of the record of the proceedings shall
be made available to the public in a readily accessible electronic
format within five business days after the document is released or
received by the lead agency.
(5) The lead agency shall encourage written comments on the
project to be submitted in a readily accessible electronic format,
and shall make any comment available to the public in a readily
accessible electronic format within five days of its receipt.
(6) Within seven business days after the receipt of any comment
that is not in an electronic format, the lead agency shall convert
that comment into a readily accessible electronic format and make it
available to the public in that format.
(7) The lead agency shall certify the record of proceedings within
five days of its approval of the project.
(b) Any dispute regarding the record of proceedings shall be
resolved by the court in an action or proceeding brought pursuant to
subdivision (c) of Section 21167.
(c) The content of the record of proceedings shall be as specified
in subdivision (e) of Section 21167.6.
(d) Subdivisions (g) to (i), inclusive, of Section 21167.6 are
applicable to an appeal of a decision in an action or proceeding
brought pursuant to subdivision (c) of Section 21167.
SEC. 3. 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.
SEC. 4. This act is an urgency statute necessary for the immediate
preservation of the public peace, health, or safety within the
meaning of Article IV of the Constitution and shall go into immediate
effect. The facts constituting the necessity are:
To expedite the preparation of the record of proceeding of an
environmental impact report for judicial review thereby protecting
the environment and public health, and promote job creation at the
earliest possible time, it is necessary for this act to take effect
immediately.