CEQA in a topsy-turvy world

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March 13, 2025

Lewis Carroll would resonate with current California politics since we are in an Alice in Wonderland upside down world. Just look at how CEQA – the California Environmental Quality Act– has become a hindrance that needs to be dodged. The DJ notes:

Senate Bill 71, sponsored by state Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, would extend exemptions for agencies like Caltrain from the California Environmental Quality Act for a myriad of projects. CEQA typically necessitates detailed, often time-consuming, environmental reviews and impact reports. The current exemption is set to sunset in 2030.

“The main interest we have in this bill is that it would remove the current sunset date … for a host of CEQA exemptions for transit projects,” Devon Ryan, officer of government and community affairs at Caltrain, said. “That does implicate a lot of things on the Caltrain-owned corridor, and we would be supportive of the continuation of this exemption.”

They pulled this eleven years ago as covered here. It's not like the rest of the activities and projects on the Caltrain corridor are running so smoothly regardless of CEQA requirements. Just look here. And it's not just Weiner poking at the heretofore revered law. Newsom is doing the same thing in Pacific Palisades and Altadena.

Who would have thought that the "evil developers" would end up being elected politicians?

Posted in Climate, Sacramento Stupidity, SamTrans-Caltrain, State Ievel issues

3 responses to “CEQA in a topsy-turvy world”

Joe

July 1, 2025

Well, there you have it. The California environment is important and must be protected–until it isn’t. From the Merc:
Gov. Gavin Newsom, lagging far behind his campaign pledge to build millions more homes, signed Monday evening the most significant rollback in decades to California’s core environmental law that’s long been blamed for construction delays and soaring prices that have increasingly put housing out of reach for the state’s residents.
Assembly Bills 130 and 131 shield a slew of projects — from new apartments to rail stations and advanced manufacturing facilities — from the California Environmental Quality Act, or CEQA, a 1970 state law that requires builders to assess potential environmental impacts from their projects and any measures that could lessen them.
The governor had two top allies in the Bay Area: Assemblymember Buffy Wicks and state Sen. Scott Wiener, two Democrats who led the push for reform.
Joe

August 16, 2025

Here’s a concise writeup on the recent changes from the Merc:
Gov. Gavin Newsom recently passed two laws limiting the California Environmental Quality Act, or CEQA, which could pave the way for more housing developments in Los Gatos, a
town with a high housing quota and a reputation for lagging on development applications.
Two laws passed June 30 would make it easier for developers to build high-density housing. AB 130 exempts housing-rich infill developments smaller than 20 acres, or under five acres
for builder’s remedy projects, from CEQA analysis. SB 131 makes any rezoning required by a municipality’s Housing Element not subject to CEQA analysis. It also streamlines the CEQA process for housing projects that would qualify for an exemption “but for a single condition,” requiring developers to only conduct a CEQA review for the single condition.
Chris Elmendorf, a law professor at UC Davis, said that since these laws took effect immediately, all projects that were already proposed and going through the approval
process and meet these requirements are no longer subject to CEQA regulations. This could open up Los Gatos to a flood of high-density housing that the town has been trying to fend off.
Joe

August 17, 2025

Here’s another bit of the Merc piece about Los Gatos. I LOVE the cumulative EIR idea and what’s even more impressive is their town attorney OK’ed it in principle!
Environmental concerns over these high-density housing projects led the town council to consider implementing a cumulative environmental impact report for all projects
in town, with the explicit goal to find possible factors that would allow the town to deny projects.
During anApril 7 study session with the planning commission, Councilmember Mary Bedame asked if building applications could be suspended until a cumulative report was finished, which may take months. Town Attorney Gabrielle Whelan answered affirmatively.
In a letter from Holland & Knight Law Firm on behalf of Urban Catalyst, developers expressed their concern that this approach was illegal.
“It is quite apparent that the town’s purpose is to try to find a method by which to deny the projects, or delay and/or burden them with process to such an extent that the proponents
cannot afford to move forward,” the letter stated.
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