CEQA Roundup: A few provisions get applause as governor quietly signs CEQA reform bill

by Justin Ewers : caeconomy.org – excerpt

There was no fanfare, no big press conference, not even a signing statement (though maybe this should have sufficed). In the end, Gov. Jerry Brown signed Sen. Darrell Steinberg’s final CEQA reform bill late on a Friday afternoon, a time-honored way to avoid media attention.

The governor left it to a spokesperson to explain his views on a bill that will streamline the CEQA process for a new Sacramento Kings arena, while also making several other changes to how CEQA works for infill developments statewide. “We were pleased to play a part in broadening the impacts of this bill,” said Evan Westrup, a spokesman for the governor… (more)

CEQA Reform? What’s In and What’s Out with SB 731 (And What’s Next…)

Lauded as the CEQA Modernization Act of 2013, Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg’s SB 731 includes a number of amendments to CEQA that appear intended to appeal to a wide variety of interest groups. SB 731 replaces the idea of CEQA reform with CEQA modernization, implying that the bill makes changes to CEQA to bring the law current rather than overhauling the decades-old statute.

We’ve analyzed SB 731’s proposals and tagged them as good, bad, or status quo, and we’ll continue to follow SB 731 as it winds its way through the Legislature. While it’s too early to predict whether SB 731 will meet success in the legislative session – one thing is for certain: CEQA modernizing is the new CEQA reform… (more)