By Manatt Phelps & Phillips LLP : lexology – excerpt
Whether in CEQA or Efforts to Halt Climate Change, Will the State Wrest Control of Land Use Decisions Away From Locals?…
As the Governor’s Office of Planning and Research (OPR) concludes yet another round of public comment on proposed amendments to the California Environmental Quality Act’s (CEQA) implementing Guidelines, many landowners and members of the regulated community have far greater concerns about the California Air Resources Board’s (CARB) ever-expanding call for land use restrictions in its greenhouse-gas-reduction regime…
CEQA Guidelines, SB 743 and VMT
One of the primary topics at issue in the CEQA Guidelines’ proposed revisions has to do with traffic impacts…
CARB and Land Use
Introduction
At issue is the latest iteration of CARB’s blueprint for reducing emissions across all sectors of the California economy, the Scoping Plan,1 which is required under AB 32, the 2006 law that formally set mandates for California’s emissions reductions quantity and timing…
Natural and Working Landscapes
Climate science has long noted a capacity of open space, agricultural areas, forests and other “natural” areas to sequester and hold carbon emissions…
Ironically, a California court of appeal recently ruled in an unpublished decision that CEQA does not require a greater mitigation ratio than 1:1 for replacement of lost or converted farmland. As a climate impact, however, it is not at all clear that a similarly balanced ratio will govern under CARB’s new regime… (more)
