On December 28, 2018, the Natural Resources Agency adopted the final text to a comprehensive update to CEQA. Significant changes to the regulations include addressing global climate change and the affordable housing shortage. Significant improvements include proactive analysis of impacts for wildfires, greenhouse gas emissions, and transportation impacts. Climate change benchmarks within the guidelines were crafted to coincide with the State’s climate action plans. The Office of Administrative Law completed review of the Final Text also on December 28, 2018 and sent the document to the Secretary of State’s office for final publication. Once published with the Secretary of State, the Guidelines go into full effect. All CEQA documents not finalized before January 1, 2019 are subject to the content requirements outlined in the modified text. The Procedural changes to CEQA will be required of all CEQA applicants and affected agencies 120 days after the guidelines were filed with the Secretary of State’s office. 

The most significant changes as outlined in the notice of proposed rulemaking include:

  • “Updated exemptions for residential and mixed-use developments near transit and redeveloping vacant buildings;
  • Clarified rules to make it easier to use existing environmental documents to cover letter projects;
  • New provisions to address energy efficiency and the availability of water supplies;
  • Simplified requirements for responding to comments;
  • Clarify existing CEQA exemptions, including the use of the existing facilities categorical exemption and the emergency statutory exemption;
  • Elaborate and clarify information on “tiering,” and CEQA’s more specific “streamlining” provisions;
  • Clarify baseline requirements and the limitations on the ability to use historic conditions where environmental conditions fluctuate;
  • Provide guidance on “pre-commitment” issues and the types of activities that an agency may (or may not) engage in prior to the completion of CEQA review;
  • Add new “Energy” and “Wildfire” resource categories to the Initial Study/Appendix G checklist;
  • Implement SB743 Traffic Impact Analysis changes, including requirement that VMT be used throughout the state, phased in over time, no later than 2020;
  • A Technical Advisory that sets forth recommended VMT screening thresholds, as well as several examples of potential mitigation measures and alternatives to reduce VMT; and
  • Modified provisions to reflect recent CEQA cases addressing baseline, mitigation requirements and greenhouse gas emissions.”

Further, Appendix G of the CEQA Guidelines includes an updated environmental checklist. The Final Statement of Reasons often provides guidance and gap fillers for ambiguity in the regulations.

William Abbott, Diane Kindermann, and Glen Hansen are attorneys at Abbott & Kindermann, Inc.  For questions relating to this article or any other California land use, real estate, environmental and/or planning issues contact Abbott & Kindermann, Inc at (916) 456-9595.

The information presented in this article should not be construed to be formal legal advice by Abbott & Kindermann, Inc., or the formation of a lawyer/client relationship. Because of the changing nature of this area of the law and the importance of individual facts, readers are encouraged to seek independent counsel for advice regarding their individual legal issues.