California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA)
Topics: Environment | legislation
CEQA created a system of checks and balances for land-use development and management decisions in California. An Environmental Impact Report (EIR) records the scope of the applicant’s proposal and analyzes all its known environmental effects. Project information is used by state and local permitting agencies in their evaluation of the proposed project. Development projects must be analyzed by a lead agency to determine the potential environmental effects.
There are three major phases in the CEQA process.
In the Pre-Application Phase the developer¬ completes the conceptual and preliminary design work for a project and is ready to prepare a project proposal. By the end of the pre¬application phase, the developer-applicant should have a good understanding of the detailed project information.
In the Application Phase, the developer files the necessary permit application forms and a detailed project description. If the application is incomplete, the lead agency must specify the deficiencies and the manner in which the deficiencies may be corrected. Once an application is accepted as complete, the lead agency has six months to approve or disapprove a project for which an Environmental Impact Report (EIR) has been certified.
The third step, Review Process, the lead agency will review the project and conduct the necessary environmental analysis. The procedure usually results in a public hearing followed by a written decision. A project may be approved, denied, or approved subject to specified conditions. If the Initial Study shows that the project will not have a significant effect on the environment, the lead agency must prepare a Negative Declaration. If the Initial Study shows that the project may have one or more significant effects, the lead agency must circulate a Draft Environmental Impact Report (DEIR). The lead agency prepares a Final Environmental Impact Report (FEIR). If the lead agency approves the project, it must find that each significant impact will be mitigated below the level of significance where feasible, and that overriding social or economic concerns merit the approval of the project in the face of unavoidable effects. One of the areas that an EIS must address is the “Growth-Inducing Impact” of the Proposed Project—the ways in which the proposed project could foster economic or population growth. Increases in the population may tax existing community service facilities, requiring construction of new facilities that could cause significant environmental effects. Also discuss the characteristic of some projects which may encourage and facilitate other activities that could significantly affect the environment, either individually or cumulatively. It must not be assumed that growth in any area is necessarily beneficial, detrimental, or of little significance to the environment.
