Bill Text: CA SB1010 | 2009-2010 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Environment: California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA).
Spectrum: Bipartisan Bill
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2010-04-05 - Set, first hearing. Failed passage in committee. (Ayes 2. Noes 4. Page 3083.) Reconsideration granted. [SB1010 Detail]
Download: California-2009-SB1010-Introduced.html
BILL NUMBER: SB 1010 INTRODUCED
BILL TEXT
INTRODUCED BY Senators Correa and Cogdill
FEBRUARY 10, 2010
An act to add and repeal Section 21099 of the Public Resources
Code, relating to the environment, and declaring the urgency thereof,
to take effect immediately.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
SB 1010, as introduced, Correa. Environment: California
Environmental Quality Act (CEQA).
(1) 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
provides for the judicial review of a lead agency's decision to
certify an EIR.
The bill would enact the CEQA Litigation Protection Pilot Program
of 2010 and would require the Business, Transportation and Housing
Agency to select projects that meet specified requirements from
specified regions for each calendar year between 2010 and 2014. The
bill would exempt from judicial review, pursuant to CEQA, a lead
agency's decision to certify the EIR of, or to adopt a mitigated
negative declaration based on an initial study for, the selected
projects, a lead agency's and responsible agency's approval of the
selected project, and the Business, Transportation and Housing Agency'
s selection of the projects. The bill would require the Business,
Transportation and Housing Agency, by December 31 of each year, to
submit an annual report to the Governor and to the Legislature
summarizing the designation of projects, and the job creation and
investment attributable to the designated projects.
The bill would repeal the pilot program as of January 1, 2016.
(2) This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately
as an urgency statute.
Vote: 2/3. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes.
State-mandated local program: no.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. Section 21099 is added to the Public Resources Code, to
read:
21099. (a) This section shall be known as the CEQA Litigation
Protection Pilot Program of 2010.
(b) (1) Notwithstanding other law, a lead agency's decision to
certify an environmental impact report or to adopt a mitigated
negative declaration based on an initial study for a project selected
by the Business, Transportation and Housing Agency pursuant to this
section is not subject to review by a court pursuant to this
division.
(2) A lead or responsible agency's decision to approve a project
selected by the Business, Transportation and Housing Agency pursuant
to this section is not subject to review by a court pursuant to this
division.
(3) The selection or designation of a project by the Business,
Transportation and Housing Agency pursuant to this section is not
subject to review by a court pursuant to this division.
(c) For the calendar year 2010, within 60 days of the effective
date of this act, the Business, Transportation and Housing Agency
shall solicit applications for an exemption provided pursuant to this
section.
(d) Within 150 days of the effective date of this act, the
Business, Transportation and Housing Agency shall select 25 projects
for the purposes of subdivision (b) as follows:
(1) Ten projects located in the counties of Imperial, Los Angeles,
Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, and San Diego.
(2) Five projects located in the counties of Alameda, Contra
Costa, Marin, Napa, San Francisco, Santa Clara, Solano, and Sonoma.
(3) Five projects located in the counties of Fresno, Kern, Kings,
Madera, Merced, Sacramento, San Joaquin, Stanislaus, and Tulare.
(4) Five projects located in the rest of the state.
(e) Within 150 days of the effective date of this act, the
Business, Transportation and Housing Agency shall identify five
alternative projects in a region identified in subdivision (d) for
the purposes of subdivision (i).
(f) Within 150 days of the effective date of this act, the
Business, Transportation and Housing Agency shall provide to the
Legislature and the public a list of the projects selected pursuant
to subdivisions (d) and (e) for public comments.
(g) (1) Within 190 days of the effective date of this act, the
Business, Transportation and Housing Agency shall hold at least one
public hearing in each region specified in subdivision (d) to
consider public comments on the selected projects in each region
specified in subdivisions (d) and (e).
(2) The Legislature may provide formal comments to the Business,
Transportation and Housing Agency through legislative committees
designated by the Speaker of the Assembly and the Senate Committee on
Rules for their respective houses.
(h) Within 210 days of the effective date of this act, the
Business, Transportation and Housing Agency shall finalize the
selection of the projects pursuant to subdivisions (d) and (e).
(i) (1) For a project to qualify for the exemption pursuant to
subdivision (b), the lead agency for the project shall certify to the
Business, Transportation and Housing Agency that it is the lead
agency's expectation that the environmental impact report for the
project will be certified within 12 months after the effective date
of this act.
(2) If an environmental impact report of a project selected
pursuant to subdivision (d) is not certified within 12 months after
the effective date of this act, the exemption provided in subdivision
(b) does not apply to that project.
(3) If an environmental impact report of a project selected
pursuant to subdivision (d) is not certified within 12 months after
the effective date of this act, the Business, Transportation and
Housing Agency shall select an alternative project identified
pursuant to subdivision (e) with an environmental impact report that
has been certified within 12 months after the effective date of this
act from that respective region for the purposes of subdivision (b).
(j) In selecting a project for the purpose of this section, the
Business, Transportation and Housing Agency shall consider the
following:
(1) The number and quality of jobs that will be created by the
project.
(2) The amount of capital investment made by the project.
(3) A balance between projects sponsored by public and private
entities.
(k) In each of the four calendar years following the effective
date of this act, from 2011 to 2014, inclusive, the Business,
Transportation and Housing Agency shall select 25 projects for the
purposes of subdivision (b), subject to the same regional limitations
as specified in subdivision (d), and subject to the same time
deadlines as set forth in subdivisions (c) to (i), inclusive, except
that the times shall be calculated from January 1 of each calendar
year. In each calendar year, projects or groups of projects may be
designated on a periodic basis in advance of those deadlines, if
notice and hearing are provided as set forth in subdivisions (f) and
(g).
(l) By December 31 of each year, the Business, Transportation and
Housing Agency shall submit an annual report on this pilot program to
the Governor and to the Legislature, summarizing the designation of
projects pursuant to this section. This annual report shall also
summarize the job creation and investment attributable to the
designated projects, and may provide additional information regarding
the implementation of the designated projects.
(m)This section shall remain in effect only until January 1, 2016,
and as of that date is repealed, unless a later enacted statute,
that is enacted before January 1, 2016, deletes or extends that date.
SEC. 2. 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 Constitution and shall go into immediate
effect. The facts constituting the necessity are:
To foster employment opportunities in the state by limiting the
abuse of the court system to stop projects after they have been
certified as meeting the requirements of the California Environmental
Quality Act (Division 13 (commencing with Section 21000) of the
Public Resources Code) for the protection of public peace, health, or
safety, it is necessary for this act to take effect immediately.
