Bill Text: CA AB1886 | 2015-2016 | Regular Session | Introduced

NOTE: There are more recent revisions of this legislation. Read Latest Draft

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Bill Title: California Environmental Quality Act: transit priority projects.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 3-0)

Status: (Failed) 2016-11-30 - From Senate committee without further action. [AB1886 Detail]

Download: California-2015-AB1886-Introduced.html

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BILL NUMBER: AB 1886	INTRODUCED
	BILL TEXT


INTRODUCED BY   Assembly Member McCarty
   (Principal coauthors: Assembly Members Bloom and Gonzalez)

                        FEBRUARY 11, 2016

   An act to amend Section 21155 of the Public Resources Code,
relating to environmental quality.


	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   AB 1886, as introduced, McCarty. California Environmental Quality
Act: transit priority 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.
   CEQA exempts from its requirements transit priority projects
meeting certain requirements, including the requirement that the
project be within 1/2 mile of a major transit stop or high-quality
transit corridor included in a regional transportation plan. CEQA
specifies that a project is considered to be within 1/2 mile of a
major transit stop or high-quality transit corridor if, among other
things, all parcels within the project have no more than 25% of their
area farther than 1/2 mile from the stop or corridor.
   This bill would increase that percentage to 50%.
   Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: no.
State-mandated local program: no.


THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:

  SECTION 1.  Section 21155 of the Public Resources Code is amended
to read:
   21155.  (a) This chapter applies only to a transit priority
project that is consistent with the general use designation, density,
building intensity, and applicable policies specified for the
project area in either a sustainable communities strategy or an
alternative planning strategy, for which the State Air Resources
Board, pursuant to subparagraph (H) of paragraph (2) of subdivision
(b) of Section 65080 of the Government Code, has accepted a
metropolitan planning organization's determination that the
sustainable communities strategy or the alternative planning strategy
would, if implemented, achieve the greenhouse gas emission reduction
targets.
   (b) For purposes of this chapter, a transit priority project shall
(1) contain at least 50 percent residential use, based on total
building square footage and, if the project contains between 26
percent and 50 percent nonresidential uses, a floor area ratio of not
less than 0.75; (2) provide a minimum net density of at least 20
dwelling units per acre; and (3) be within one-half mile of a major
transit stop or high-quality transit corridor included in a regional
transportation plan. A major transit stop is as defined in Section
21064.3, except that, for purposes of this section, it also includes
major transit stops that are included in the applicable regional
transportation plan. For purposes of this section, a high-quality
transit corridor means a corridor with fixed route bus service with
service intervals no longer than 15 minutes during peak commute
hours. A project shall be considered to be within one-half mile of a
major transit stop or high-quality transit corridor if all parcels
within the project have no more than  25   50
 percent of their area farther than one-half mile from the stop
or corridor and if not more than 10 percent of the residential units
or 100 units, whichever is less, in the project are farther than
one-half mile from the stop or corridor.