San Francisco Beautiful v. City and County of San Francisco (2014) 226 Cal.App.4th 1012 In yet another case involving CEQA’s categorical exemptions, and the “unusual circumstances” exceptions to them, the California Court of Appeal held that th… Read More

California Clean Energy Committee v. City of Woodland (2014) 225 Cal.App.4th The California Court of Appeal, Third District, recently invalidated an Environmental Impact Report (“EIR”) because a City’s mitigation measures for urban decay failed… Read More

Sierra Club et al v. County of Fresno Cal.Rptr.3d— (2014) WL2199317 The Fifth District Court of Appeal recently held that an environmental impact report (“EIR”) was inadequate for failing to study air pollutant emissions caused by the proje… Read More

On June 25, 2014, the Senate Committee on Environmental Quality is holding a public hearing on AB 52, legislation that would expand CEQA by, among other things, establishing “tribal cultural resources” as a new category of environmental resources… Read More

On June 18, 2014, the Senate Committee on Environmental Quality will hold a public hearing on AB 52, as recently amended by Assembly Member Gatto (D-Burbank). A current version of AB 52 can be found here. Although likely subject to amendment, we high… Read More

Senate Bill 1451 (Hill) amends Public Resources Code section 21177 in order to limit the occurrence of “document dumping,” a practice used by some project opponents in California Environmental Quality Act (“CEQA”) proceedings.… Read More

As discussed in an earlier article, SB 743 implemented needed CEQA reforms for “Transit Priority Projects” and directed OPR to establish new criteria for analyzing transportation impacts through amendments to the CEQA Guidelines. However,… Read More

While many in the development community were hopeful that 2013 would be a year of major CEQA reforms, in the end the state made more modest revisions to the law. Led by Senate President pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, the Legislature passed and the Govern… Read More