Bill Text: CA AB1318 | 2023-2024 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: California Environmental Quality Act: exemption: residential projects.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)
Status: (Engrossed) 2023-06-07 - In committee: Set, first hearing. Hearing canceled at the request of author. [AB1318 Detail]
Download: California-2023-AB1318-Introduced.html
CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE—
2023–2024 REGULAR SESSION
Assembly Bill
No. 1318
| Introduced by Assembly Member Luz Rivas |
February 16, 2023 |
An act to amend Section 21159.24 of the Public Resources Code, relating to environmental quality.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
AB 1318, as introduced, Luz Rivas.
California Environmental Quality Act: exemption: 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 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 exempts from its requirements a residential project on an urbanized infill site that meets certain requirements, including
that the site of the project is not more than 4 acres in total area.
This bill would expand the exemption by increasing the size of a residential project that would qualify for the exemption to include a project of not more than 5 acres in total area. The bill would require a lead agency approving an exempt residential project on an urbanized infill site to file a notice of exemption with the Office of Planning and Research, as specified.
Because the bill would increase the number of residential projects that would qualify for the exemption and would require lead agencies to file notices of exemption with the Office of Planning and Research, thereby increasing the duties of a local agency, it would impose a state-mandated local program.
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.
Digest Key
Vote: MAJORITY Appropriation: NO Fiscal Committee: YES Local Program: YESBill Text
The people of the State of California do enact as follows:
SECTION 1.
Section 21159.24 of the Public Resources Code is amended to read:21159.24.
(a) Except as provided in subdivision (b), this division does not apply to a project if all of the following criteria are met:(1) The project is a residential project on an infill site.
(2) The project is located within an urbanized area.
(3) The project satisfies the criteria of Section 21159.21.
(4) Within five years of the date that the application for the project is deemed complete pursuant to Section 65943 of the Government Code, community-level environmental review was certified or adopted.
(5) The
site of the project is not more than four five
acres in total area.
(6) The project does not contain more than 100 residential units.
(7) Either of the following criteria are met:
(A) (i) At least 10 percent of the housing is sold to families of moderate income, or not less than 10 percent of the housing is rented to families of low income, or not less than 5 percent of the housing is rented to families of very low income.
(ii) The project developer provides sufficient legal commitments to the appropriate local agency to ensure the continued availability and use of the housing units for very low, low-,
low income, low-income, and moderate-income households at monthly housing costs determined pursuant to paragraph (3) of subdivision (h) of Section 65589.5 of the Government Code.
(B) The project developer has paid or will pay in-lieu fees pursuant to a local ordinance in an amount sufficient to result in the development of an equivalent number of units that would otherwise be required pursuant to subparagraph (A).
(8) The project is within one-half mile of a major transit stop.
(9) The project does not include any single level building that exceeds 100,000 square feet.
(10) The project promotes higher density infill housing. A project with a density of at least 20 units per acre shall be conclusively presumed to
promote higher density infill housing. A project with a density of at least 10 units per acre and a density greater than the average density of the residential properties within 1,500 feet shall be presumed to promote higher density housing unless the preponderance of the evidence demonstrates otherwise.
(b) Notwithstanding subdivision (a), this division shall apply to a development project that meets the criteria described in subdivision (a), if any of the following occur:
(1) There is a reasonable possibility that the project will have a project-specific, significant effect on the environment due to unusual circumstances.
(2) Substantial changes with respect to the circumstances under which the project is being undertaken that are related to the project have occurred since
the community-level environmental review was certified or adopted.
(3) New information becomes available regarding the circumstances under which the project is being undertaken and that is related to the project, that was not known, and could not have been known, at the time that
the community-level environmental review was certified or adopted.
(c) If a project satisfies the criteria described in subdivision (a), but is not exempt from this division as a result of satisfying the criteria described in subdivision (b), the analysis of the environmental effects of the project in the environmental impact report or the negative declaration shall be limited to an analysis of the project-specific effect of the projects and any effects identified pursuant to paragraph (2) or (3) of subdivision (b).
(d) A lead agency approving a project that is exempt from this division under this section shall file a notice of exemption with the Office of Planning and Research in the manner specified in subdivision (b) of Section 21152.
(d)
(e) For the purposes of this section, “residential” means a use consisting of either of the following:
(1) Residential units only.
(2) Residential units and primarily neighborhood-serving goods, services, or retail uses that do not exceed 25 percent of the total building square footage of the project.
