Bill Text: CA AB356 | 2023-2024 | Regular Session | Amended

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

---

Bill Title: California Environmental Quality Act: aesthetic impacts.

Spectrum: Slight Partisan Bill (Republican 5-3)

Status: (Passed) 2023-07-27 - Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter 116, Statutes of 2023. [AB356 Detail]

Download: California-2023-AB356-Amended.html

---

Amended  IN  Assembly  March 07, 2023

CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE— 2023–2024 REGULAR SESSION

Assembly Bill

No. 356

---

Introduced by Assembly Member Mathis
(Coauthors: Assembly Members Dixon, Flora, McCarty, Ting, and Wallis)
(Coauthors: Senators Ochoa Bogh and Wiener)

January 31, 2023

---

An act to amend Section 21081.3 of the Public Resources Code, relating to environmental quality.

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST

AB 356, as amended, Mathis. California Environmental Quality Act: aesthetic impacts.

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.

Existing law, until January 1, 2024, specifies that, except as provided, a lead agency is not required to evaluate the aesthetic effects of a project and aesthetic effects are not considered significant effects on the environment if the project involves the refurbishment, conversion, repurposing, or replacement of an existing building that meets certain requirements.

This bill would extend the operation of the above provision indefinitely.

Digest Key

Vote: MAJORITY   Appropriation: NO   Fiscal Committee: YES   Local Program: NO  

---

Bill Text

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

SECTION 1.

 This act shall be known, and may be cited, as the Dilapidated Building Refurbishment Act.

SECTION 1.SEC. 2.

 Section 21081.3 of the Public Resources Code is amended to read:

21081.3.

 (a) Except as specified in subdivision (b), a lead agency is not required to evaluate the aesthetic effects of a project and aesthetic effects shall not be considered significant effects on the environment if the project involves the refurbishment, conversion, repurposing, or replacement of an existing building that meets all of the following requirements:

(1) The building is abandoned, dilapidated, or has been vacant for more than one year.

(2) The building site is immediately adjacent to parcels that are developed with qualified urban uses or at least 75 percent of the perimeter of the site adjoins parcels that are developed with qualified urban uses and the remaining 25 percent of the site adjoins parcels that previously have been developed for qualified urban uses.

(3) The project includes the construction of housing.

(4) Any new structure does not substantially exceed the height of the existing structure.

(5) The project does not create a new source of substantial light or glare.

(b) Subdivision (a) shall not apply to either of the following:

(1) A project with potentially significant aesthetic effects on an official state scenic highway established pursuant to Article 2.5 (commencing with Section 260) of Chapter 2 of Division 1 of the Streets and Highways Code.

(2) A project with potentially significant aesthetic effects on historical or cultural resources.

(c) This section does not alter, affect, or otherwise change the authority of a lead agency to consider aesthetic issues and to require the mitigation or avoidance of adverse aesthetic effect pursuant to other laws.

(d) For purposes of this section, “dilapidated” means decayed, deteriorated, or fallen into such disrepair through neglect or misuse so as to require substantial repair for safe and proper use.