Exempts some university housing from environmental review

The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) requires a lead agency, as defined, to prepare, or cause to be prepared, and certify the completion of an environmental impact report on a project that it proposes to carry out or approve that may have a significant effect on the environment or to adopt a negative declaration if it finds that the project will not have that effect.

This bill would, until January 1, 2030, exempt from CEQA a university housing development project, as defined, carried out by a public university, as defined, on real property owned by the public university if the project meets certain requirements, including that each building within the project is certified as Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) platinum or better by the United States Green Building Council, that the project’s construction impacts are fully mitigated, and that the project is not located, in whole or in part, on certain types of sites, including a site that is within a special flood hazard area subject to inundation by a 1% annual chance flood or within a regulatory floodway as determined by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, as provided. The bill, with respect to a site that is within a special flood hazard area subject to inundation by a 1% annual chance flood or within a regulatory floodway, would prohibit a local government from denying an application on the basis that a public university did not comply with any additional permit requirement, standard, or action adopted by that local government applicable to the site if the public university is able to satisfy all applicable federal qualifying criteria in order to demonstrate that the site meets these criteria and is otherwise eligible to be exempt from CEQA pursuant to the above requirements. By imposing additional duties on local governments, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The bill would provide that a university housing development project is not exempt from CEQA if, among other things, the project would require the demolition of specified housing or a historic structure that is listed on a national, state, or local historic register. The bill would require the public university to hold at least one noticed public hearing to hear and respond to public comments before determining that the university housing development project is exempt under the bill’s provisions. The bill would require the lead agency, before the issuance of a certificate of occupancy for each building within a project, to obtain the LEED certification of the building, and to make a determination that all construction impacts of the project have been fully mitigated and issue a notice of that determination. The bill would require the lead agency to file the LEED certification and the notice with the Office of Planning and Research and the county clerk of the county in which the project is located. The bill would require the Office of Planning and Research and the county clerk to make the certification and notice available to the public. To the extent that this bill would impose additional duties on a local agency, including the county clerk, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program.

The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement.

This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.