Bill Text: CA AB3227 | 2023-2024 | Regular Session | Amended
Bill Title: California Environmental Quality Act: exemption: stormwater facilities: routine maintenance.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)
Status: (Passed) 2024-09-27 - Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter 761, Statutes of 2024. [AB3227 Detail]
Download: California-2023-AB3227-Amended.html
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Amended
IN
Assembly
April 15, 2024 |
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Amended
IN
Assembly
April 01, 2024 |
| Introduced by Assembly Member Alvarez |
February 16, 2024 |
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
Existing law prohibits an entity from substantially diverting or obstructing the natural flow of, or substantially changing or using any material from the bed, channel, or bank of, any river, stream, or lake, or from depositing or disposing of certain material where it may pass into any river, stream, or lake, unless prescribed requirements are met, including written notification to the Department of
Fish and Wildlife regarding the proposed activity. Existing law requires the department to determine whether the activity may substantially adversely affect an existing fish and wildlife resource and, if so, to provide a draft lake or streambed alteration agreement to the entity, and prescribes the procedures for entering into a final agreement. Existing law requires the draft agreement to describe the fish and wildlife resources that the department has determined the activity may substantially adversely affect and to include measures to protect those resources.
This bill would provide that any measures to protect fish and wildlife resources pursuant to those provisions shall supersede, and not be in addition to, any measures previously approved by the entity, including those measures in an environmental impact report.
Digest Key
Vote: MAJORITY Appropriation: NO Fiscal Committee: YES Local Program: YESBill Text
The people of the State of California do enact as follows:
(a)After the notification is complete, the department shall determine whether the activity may substantially adversely affect an existing fish and wildlife resource. If the department determines that the activity may have that effect, the department shall provide a draft agreement to the entity within 60 days after the notification is complete. The draft agreement shall describe the fish and wildlife resources that the department has determined the activity may substantially adversely affect and include measures to protect those resources. The department’s description of the affected resources shall be specific and detailed, and the department shall make available, upon request, the information upon which its determination of substantial adverse effect is based. Within 30 days of the
date of receipt of the draft agreement, the entity shall notify the department whether the measures to protect fish and wildlife resources in that draft agreement are acceptable. If the department’s measures are not acceptable, the entity shall so notify the department in writing and specify the measures that are not acceptable. Upon written request, the department shall meet with the entity within 14 days of the date the department receives the request for the purpose of resolving any disagreement regarding those measures. If the entity fails to respond, in writing, within 90 days of receiving the draft agreement, the department may withdraw that agreement, and require the entity to resubmit a notification to the department before commencing the activity.
(b)If mutual agreement is not reached at any meeting held pursuant to subdivision (a), the entity may request, in writing, the appointment of a panel of arbitrators to resolve the
disagreement. A panel of arbitrators shall be appointed within 14 days of receipt of the written request. The panel of arbitrators shall be comprised of three persons, as follows: one representative selected by the department; one representative selected by the affected entity; and a third person mutually agreed upon by the department and the entity, who shall serve as the panel chair. If the department and the entity cannot agree on the third person within that 14-day period, the third person shall be appointed in the manner provided by Section 1281.6 of the Code of Civil Procedure. The third person shall have scientific expertise relevant to the fish and wildlife resources that may be substantially adversely affected by the activity proposed by the entity and to the measures proposed by the department to protect those resources. The authority of the panel of arbitrators is limited to resolving disagreements regarding the measures specified in subdivision (a), and subdivisions (b) and (g) of Section 1605,
and, in the case of an extension, whether or not the agreement needs to be modified to protect fish and wildlife resources. Any decision by the panel of arbitrators shall be issued within 14 days from the date the panel was established, shall be binding on the department and the affected entity, shall be based on the best scientific information reasonably available at the time of the arbitration, and, except for a decision to extend an agreement without modification, shall be made in the form of a final agreement. The final agreement issued by the panel shall also include, without modification, all measures that were not subject to arbitration. Each party shall pay the expenses of their selected representative and pay one-half the expenses of the third person.
(c)Any measures to protect fish and wildlife resources pursuant to this section shall supersede, and
not be in addition to, any measures previously approved by the entity, including those measures in an environmental impact report.
(a)Except as otherwise provided in this division, this division shall apply to discretionary projects proposed to be carried out or approved by public agencies, including, but not limited to, the enactment and amendment of zoning ordinances, the issuance of zoning variances, the issuance of conditional use permits, and the approval of tentative subdivision maps unless the project is exempt from this division.
(b)This division does not apply to any of the following activities:
(1)Ministerial projects proposed to be carried out or approved by public agencies.
(2)Emergency repairs to public service facilities necessary to maintain
service.
(3)Projects undertaken, carried out, or approved by a public agency to maintain, repair, restore, demolish, or replace property or facilities damaged or destroyed as a result of a disaster in a disaster-stricken area in which a state of emergency has been proclaimed by the Governor pursuant to Chapter 7 (commencing with Section 8550) of Division 1 of Title 2 of the Government Code.
(4)Specific actions necessary to prevent or mitigate an emergency, including routine maintenance of stormwater facilities that are fully concrete or that have a conveyance capacity of less than a 100-year storm event.
(5)Projects that a public agency rejects or disapproves.
(6)Actions undertaken by a public agency relating to any thermal powerplant site or facility, including the expenditure, obligation, or encumbrance of funds by a public agency for planning, engineering, or design purposes, or for the conditional sale or purchase of equipment, fuel, water (except groundwater), steam, or power for a thermal powerplant, if the powerplant site and related facility will be the subject of an environmental impact report, negative declaration, or other document, prepared pursuant to a regulatory program certified pursuant to Section 21080.5,
that will be prepared by the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission, by the Public Utilities Commission, or by the city or county in which the powerplant and related facility would be located if the environmental impact report, negative declaration, or document includes the environmental impact, if any, of the action described in this paragraph.
(7)Activities or approvals necessary to the bidding for, hosting or staging of, and funding or carrying out of, an Olympic games under the authority of the International Olympic Committee, except for the construction of facilities necessary for the Olympic games.
(8)The establishment, modification, structuring, restructuring, or approval of rates, tolls, fares, or other charges by public agencies
that the public agency finds are for the purpose of (A) meeting operating expenses, including employee wage rates and fringe benefits, (B) purchasing or leasing supplies, equipment, or materials, (C) meeting financial reserve needs and requirements, (D) obtaining funds for capital projects necessary to maintain service within existing service areas, or (E) obtaining funds necessary to maintain those intracity transfers as are authorized by city charter. The public agency shall incorporate written findings in the record of any proceeding in which an exemption under this paragraph is claimed setting forth with specificity the basis for the claim of exemption.
(9)All classes of projects designated pursuant to Section 21084.
(10)A project for the institution or increase of passenger or commuter services on rail or highway rights-of-way
already in use, including modernization of existing stations and parking facilities. For purposes of this paragraph, “highway” shall have the same meaning as defined in Section 360 of the Vehicle Code.
(11)A project for the institution or increase of passenger or commuter service on high-occupancy vehicle lanes already in use, including the modernization of existing stations and parking facilities.
(12)Facility extensions not to exceed four miles in length that are required for the transfer of passengers from or to exclusive public mass transit guideway or busway public transit services.
(13)A project for the
development of a regional transportation improvement program, the state transportation improvement program, or a congestion management program prepared pursuant to Section 65089 of the Government Code.
(14)A project or portion of a project located in another state that will be subject to environmental impact review pursuant to the National Environmental Policy
Act of 1969 (42 U.S.C. Sec. 4321 et seq.) or similar state laws of that state. Any emissions or discharges that would have a significant effect on the environment in this state are subject to this division.
(15)A project undertaken by a local agency to implement a rule or regulation imposed by a state agency, board, or commission under a certified regulatory program pursuant to Section 21080.5. Any site-specific effect of the project that was not analyzed as a significant effect on the environment in the plan or other written documentation required by
Section 21080.5 is subject to this division.
(c)If a lead agency determines that a proposed project, not otherwise exempt from this division, would not have a significant effect on the environment, the lead agency shall adopt a negative declaration to that effect. The negative declaration shall be prepared for the proposed project in either of the following circumstances:
(1)There is no substantial evidence, in light of the whole record before the lead agency, that the project may have a significant effect on the environment.
(2)An initial study identifies potentially significant effects on the environment, but (A) revisions in the project plans or proposals made by, or agreed to by, the applicant before the proposed negative declaration and initial study are released for public review would avoid the effects or
mitigate the effects to a point where clearly no significant effect on the environment would occur, and (B) there is no substantial evidence, in light of the whole record before the lead agency, that the project, as revised, may have a significant effect on the environment.
(d)If there is substantial evidence, in light of the whole record before the lead agency, that the project may have a significant effect on the environment, an environmental impact report shall be prepared.
(e)(1)For purposes of this section and this division, substantial evidence includes fact, a reasonable assumption predicated upon fact, or expert opinion supported by fact.
(2)Substantial evidence is not argument, speculation,
unsubstantiated opinion or narrative, evidence that is clearly inaccurate or erroneous, or evidence of social or economic impacts that do not contribute to, or are not caused by, physical impacts on the environment.
(f)As a result of the public review process for a mitigated negative declaration, including administrative decisions and public hearings, the lead agency may conclude that certain mitigation measures identified pursuant to paragraph (2) of subdivision (c) are infeasible or otherwise undesirable. In those circumstances, the lead agency, before approving the project, may delete those mitigation measures and substitute for them other mitigation measures that the lead agency finds, after holding a public hearing on the matter, are
equivalent or more effective in mitigating significant effects on the environment to a less than significant level and that do not cause any potentially significant effect on the environment. If those new mitigation measures are made conditions of project approval or are otherwise made part of the project approval, the deletion of the former measures and the substitution of the new mitigation measures shall not constitute an action or circumstance requiring recirculation of the mitigated negative declaration.
(g)This section does not preclude a project applicant or any other person from challenging, in an administrative or judicial proceeding, the legality of a condition of project approval imposed by the lead agency. If,
however, any condition of project approval set aside by either an administrative body or court was necessary to avoid or lessen the likelihood of the occurrence of a significant effect on the environment, the lead agency’s approval of the negative declaration and project shall be invalid and a new environmental review process shall be conducted before the project can be reapproved, unless the lead agency substitutes a new condition that the lead agency finds, after holding a public hearing on the matter, is equivalent to, or more effective in, lessening or avoiding significant effects on the environment and that does not cause any potentially significant effect on the environment.
(a)All local agencies shall prepare, or cause to be prepared by contract, and certify the completion of, an environmental impact report on any project that they intend to carry out or approve that may have a significant effect on the environment. When a report is required by Section 65402 of the Government Code, the environmental impact report may be submitted as a part of that report.
(b)For purposes of this section, any significant effect on the environment shall be limited to substantial, or potentially substantial,
adverse changes in physical conditions that exist within the area as defined in Section 21060.5.
(c)(1)If a nonelected decisionmaking body of a local lead agency certifies an environmental impact report, approves a negative declaration or mitigated negative declaration, or determines that a project is not subject to this division, that certification, approval, or determination may be appealed to the agency’s elected decisionmaking body, if any.
(2)A determination that a
project is not subject to this division pursuant to paragraph (2) or (4) of subdivision (b) of Section 21080 shall not be eligible for appeal to the agency’s elected decisionmaking body.
