Bill Text: CA AB1307 | 2023-2024 | Regular Session | Chaptered

California Assembly Bill 1307

Bill Title: California Environmental Quality Act: noise impact: residential projects.

Spectrum: Slight Partisan Bill (Democrat 3-1)

Status: (Passed) 2023-09-07 - Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter 160, Statutes of 2023. [AB1307 Detail]

Download: California-2023-AB1307-Chaptered.html

Assembly Bill No. 1307

CHAPTER 160

An act to add Sections 21085 and 21085.2 to the Public Resources Code, relating to environmental quality, and declaring the urgency thereof, to take effect immediately.

[ Approved by Governor September 07, 2023. Filed with Secretary of State September 07, 2023. ]

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST

AB 1307, Wicks. California Environmental Quality Act: noise impact: residential projects.

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.

This bill would specify that the effects of noise generated by project occupants and their guests on human beings is not a significant effect on the environment for residential projects for purposes of CEQA.

This bill would specify that institutions of public higher education, in an EIR for a residential or mixed-use housing project, are not required to consider alternatives to the location of the proposed project if certain requirements are met.

This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.

Vote: 2/3 Appropriation: NO Fiscal Committee: YES Local Program: NO

The people of the State of California do enact as follows:

SECTION 1.

Section 21085 is added to the Public Resources Code, to read:

21085.

For purposes of this division, for residential projects, the effects of noise generated by project occupants and their guests on human beings is not a significant effect on the environment.

SEC. 2.

Section 21085.2 is added to the Public Resources Code, to read:

21085.2.

(a) For purposes of this section, the following definitions apply:

(1) “Long-range development plan” means a physical development and land use plan to meet the academic and institutional objectives for a particular campus or medical center of public higher education.

(2) “Public higher education” means the institutions described in subdivision (a) of Section 66010 of the Education Code.

(3) “Residential or mixed-use housing project” means a project consisting of residential uses only or a mix of residential and nonresidential uses, with at least two-thirds of the square footage of the development designated for residential uses.

(4) “Substantially surrounded” means at least 75 percent of the perimeter of the project site adjoins, or is separated only by an improved public right-of-way from, parcels that are developed with qualified urban uses.

(b) Notwithstanding any other law or regulation, institutions of public higher education shall not be required, in an environmental impact report prepared for a residential or mixed-use housing project, to consider alternatives to the location of the residential or mixed-use housing project if both of the following requirements are met:

(1) The residential or mixed-use housing project is located on a site that is no more than five acres and is substantially surrounded by qualified urban uses.

(2) The residential or mixed-use housing project has already been evaluated in the environmental impact report for the most recent long-range development plan for the applicable campus.

SEC. 3.

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 California Constitution and shall go into immediate effect. The facts constituting the necessity are:

Currently in California there is a substantial housing crisis. To ensure housing projects are not subject to further uncertainty, delay, or risk of lawsuit, it is necessary for this act to take effect immediately.