After another two months, court decision stall desperately needed housing developmentGovernor Gavin Newsom said California’s groundbreaking environmental law “broken”
The California Environmental Quality Act, known as CEQA, aims to protect the environment by requiring that development harm be investigated and mitigated before government approval. But, as Newsom points out, CEQA is “weaponized” by (especially) “wealthy homeowners” to block housing — often in urban areas where people have housing. or in the suburbs. Minimal environmental impact.
And housing isn’t the only thing at stake.To meet state greenhouse gas emissions targets and to secure percentage federal green energy funding — California needs to approve wind and solar energy projects, power lines, vehicle charging networks, and public transit quickly. To this end, the governor said in his May, “advocate a different paradigm” No more “ruining” with “paralysis and process”. From now on, the state will be committed to “results”.
Mr. Newsom’s bold statements signaled that major reforms were on the horizon. However, the package included only his two phased reforms of CEQA, neither of which was aimed at housing.
One is that the governor has more “environmental leadershipIn the project, courts have 270 days to finalize legal challenges. But the governor’s bill provides no legal remedy if the case takes time to resolve and the legal deadlock continues.
Another measure is aimed at narrowing the “administrative record” in CEQA cases. In many cases, the compilation of administrative records (all information related to environmental reviews available to the government and relevant to the courts) can lead to significant delays as it takes a long time to prepare all the necessary documents. I have.
Newsom suggested mitigating this problem by excluding from administrative records “internal communications” within government agencies that are not presented to the final decision maker. This was baby steps.
But even this small change caused the ire of many. 100 organizations They call themselves environmentalists. They confusedly argued that the governor’s reform would “make administrative record collection prohibitively expensive and difficult, and judicial remedies affordable only for the wealthy.”
“Ridiculous!‘ spewed Newsom. Then he gave in.
Language on internal agency communications was removed from his bill before he signed it last week, replacing it with symbolic references to “meeting invitations and communication scheduling,” which are part of CEQA. It has nothing to do with litigation.
In summary, Mr. Newsom’s massive push to reform a “broken” law earned him the legal right to petition judges to expedite a few more cases, but little else. rice field.
If you want to see what real reform looks like, look north. Washington legislators overwhelmingly voted yes this year. Eliminate environmental reviews for all Urban housing projects in compliance with urban comprehensive planning and zoning laws. Green Oregon, on the other hand, never considered the need for a law like CEQA.adopted urban growth border Instead, it will preserve rural areas while allowing cities to approve new homes without the “paralysis” that Newsom laments.
So Oregon and Washington chose the outcome.
Strangely, amid all the turmoil caused by the governor’s infrastructure policy, Mr. Newsom has refrained from exercising regulatory authority over CEQA. The law allows the governor’s Office of Planning and Research and the State Department of Natural Resources to issue “guidelines” to refine and clarify the often vague requirements of CEQA. New guidelines include stronger exemptions for urban and suburban housing, new exemptions for transmission, and a statewide environmental zoning map to adjust the intensity of screening according to the sensitivity of specific zones. There is a possibility that
Yes, Team Paralysis will convict and file lawsuits.And many months ago the court said overthrow Efforts to streamline CEQA through guidelines. But then the California Supreme Court disapproval about that decision.
The field belongs to the governor. At the very least, a thorough review of the guidelines will set the agenda for Congress and the courts. If CEQA is truly broken, it is certainly worth taking the legal and political risks to fix it.
Chris Elmendorf is a law professor at the University of California, Davis School of Law.
