California Environmental Quality Act

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The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) is a California law (California Public Resources Code section 21000 et seq.) passed in 1970, shortly after the Federal Government passed the National Environmental Policy Act. CEQA does not directly regulate land uses, but instead requires development projects submit documentation of their potential environmental impact.

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[edit] CEQA Jurisdiction

CEQA has originally applied to only public projects, but California Supreme Court interpretation of the law, as well as later revisions to the wording have expanded the CEQA's jurisdiction to nearly all projects within California. ยง 21002.1: "Each public agency shall mitigate or avoid the significant effects on the environment of projects that it carries out or approves whenever it is feasible to do so."

[edit] Determining if CEQA Applies

In general CEQA applies to any land use activity, but there are many details in determining if a project falls under CEQA or not. General rule of thumb has been that CEQA applies to any discretionary project, that is a project that requires approval by a local government body. This includes building projects as well as planning documents such as general plans and zoning ordinances. In general CEQA does not apply when only ministerial approval is necessary, such as a building permit application. It is assumed that CEQA would have already been applied to such projects during discretionary approval process. There are however both times when CEQA does not apply to discretionary decisions and times with CEQA does apply to ministerial decisions.

[edit] CEQA Process

To comply with CEQA an agency must first prepare an initial study, assessing whether a project may have significant environmental impacts. If so, the agency must prepare an environmental impact report. In general the agency hires an outside consultant, paid for by entity that proposed the project. If no EIR is necessary, the agency must prepare a Negative Declaration. If the project would have significant environmental impacts, but those impacts may be mitigated to a level of less than significant, then the agency must prepare a Mitigated Negative Declaration.

[edit] CEQA's Influence

As of 2005 14 states as well as the District of Columbia have CEQA-style laws requiring impacts be reported for development. Many of these laws were patterned after CEQA and New York state's law actually used CEQA as a foundation. The various state laws are not entirely similar to CEQA though, as most only apply to public projects and few have as rigorous review standards as CEQA.

[edit] CEQA and Litigation

CEQA's lack of clear definitions often lead to litigation, both by groups that support development and those against such development. CEQA provided no threshold for what constitutes a significant environmental impact although the state does include definitions of possible significant impacts. Often challenges are made to projects with negative declarations, on the grounds that EIRs should have been carried out. Litigation also occurs on the grounds that EIRs are too brief or overlooked possible impacts, as there are no guidelines for the length or content of the EIRs.

[edit] CEQA vs. NEPA

The environmental impact report (EIR) required under CEQA and the environmental impact statement (EIS) under NEPA are similar documents, yet have some crucial differences: for example, CEQA requires the best alternative to be followed, whereas NEPA simply requires the impacts of each alternative be listed. Under NEPA, an agency can list all reasonable alternatives and choose the worst one for the environment, but CEQA has provisions requiring the best to be taken. If a major project is seeking approval in California, it must do both and EIR and an EIS, but both can be combined into one document (since the EIR and EIS have the same elements for the most part).

[edit] References

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