CEQA News & Updates
Little Hoover Commission Releases Flawed CEQA Report
By Julia Steim
May 8, 2024
Legal Planet
Julia Steim
The long-awaited report proposes sweeping exemptions and process changes—even though its own reasoning points in the opposite direction.
More than a year ago, California’s Little Hoover Commission convened the first in a series of public hearings designed to interrogate the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) as well as Californians’ often tense relationship with that landmark legislation. In recent years, some pro-housing advocates have pointed to CEQA as the bogeyman driving the state’s affordable housing crisis; defenders of the law say CEQA stymies relatively few developments that would close the housing gap but does serve as a crucial public participation tool for long-burdened environmental justice communities. (You can read a good overview of the Commission and the CEQA reform debate here.) Following the conclusion of the Commission’s hearings, it aimed to release a study reporting on the current state of CEQA and providing recommendations on possible amendments to the statute.
Today, it finally did. But the report, which bills itself as presenting “targeted reforms,” does anything but. And it is the product of a process that started fair but turned flawed, which is concerning given that it may be leaned on as a guidepost for state law- and policymakers.
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New CEQA bill would harm low-income communities in San Francisco
By Angelica Cabande
April 24, 2024
Opinion in Capitol Weekly
Angelica Cabande
Angelica Cabande, Executive Director of the South of Market Community Action Network (SOMCAN), wrote an opinion piece for Capitol Weekly explaining the deep flaws in Senator Wiener’s Senate Bill 1227. This bill proposes to eradicate all protections under CEQA for new projects in downtown San Francisco, where thousands of people live and work. Senator Wiener labels downtown a “concrete jungle,” but CEQA’s public health and environmental safeguards are essential to residents of low-income neighborhoods in the city. As Cabande explains, SB 1227 would not revive downtown San Francisco, its purported goal, but it would undermine the city’s low-income communities and communities of color – while the city’s more affluent, white areas would retain CEQA’s protections.
SOMCAN works on a range of issues to nurture the lives of youth, families, individuals and workers in San Francisco.
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San Francisco’s economic woes have nothing to do with CEQA: Commentary in the Los Angeles and San Francisco Daily Journal
By Ruby Acevedo and Douglas P. Carstens
March 19, 2024
Ruby Acevedo and Douglas P. Carstens
The Los Angeles and San Francisco Daily Journal, a news outlet for the California legal community, ran an insightful commentary pointing out the central flaw in a proposed CEQA exemption currently under consideration in Sacramento. Ruby Acevedo, a senior staff attorney at the environmental justice organization Communities for a Better Environment, and Douglas P. Carstens, board president of the Planning and Conservation League and managing partner of Carstens Black & Minteer LLP, argue that Senate Bill 1227, which would exempt from CEQA review most new development in San Francisco’s downtown, would not impact the real economic factors causing San Francisco’s economic woes, namely, high labor costs, elevated interest rates, and weakening demand for downtown real estate. They also elaborate on the public health and safety risks associated with the bill.
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100+ organizations call on legislators, Governor to keep CEQA strong in 2024
January 30, 2024
More than 100 groups, representing a wide variety of environmental justice, land use and conservation organizations from across California, joined with CEQA Works to send a joint letter to California lawmakers and Governor Newsom, urging them to keep CEQA strong in 2024.
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Stop scapegoating CEQA for California’s affordable housing crisis: Commentary in The Mercury News
By Jennifer Ganata and Douglas P. Carstens
December 16, 2023
2023 was a big year for CEQA in the state legislature. Jennifer Ganata of Communities for a Better Environment and Doug Carstens of Planning and Conservation League wrote a guest commentary for The Mercury News that summarizes the attacks on CEQA that occurred last year, looks at threats to CEQA in the next legislative session, and addresses head-on the spurious criticisms of CEQA blocking affordable housing. In their opinion piece, Jen and Doug refute these criticisms and suggest some real solutions to California’s housing crisis.
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Jennifer Ganata with Communities for a Better Environment (CBE) delivers powerful testimony about the importance of CEQA to Little Hoover Commission
March 16, 2023
Jennifer Ganata
The Little Hoover Commission, an independent California state oversight agency, met in 2023 to consider potential reforms to CEQA. Commissioners heard from numerous professionals who work on CEQA-related issues and who traveled to Sacramento to speak about the importance of maintaining a strong CEQA to protect California’s economy, public health, and communities. There was also an outpouring of public comments in support of keeping CEQA strong. The commission has extended its examination of CEQA into 2024.