Blog
CEQA Developments
By Miller Starr Regalia Visit the blog
517 published works
CEQA Developments
Fifth District Holds Project to Develop New “Produced Water” Injection Wells in Pre-CEQA Oil Field Operating Since 1950’s Is Not Statutorily Or Categorically Exempt
In an opinion filed on September 17, and later ordered published on October 15, 2026, the Fifth District Court of Appeal reversed a judgment granting a writ of ordinary mandamus ordering the…
CEQA Developments
Sixth District Holds Project Proposing “Typically Ministerial” Lot Line Adjustment Is Not Exempt From CEQA When Coupled With Agency’s Discretionary Acceptance of Property Dedication for New Public Street
In an opinion filed September 3, and later certified for publication on October 5, 2026, the Sixth District Court of Appeal reversed the trial court’s judgment denying a writ petition challenging the…
CEQA Developments
Fourth District Voids Laguna Beach’s Negative Declaration and Historic Resources Element Amendment, Holds CEQA Required EIR or MND Due to Amendment’s Blanket Removal of Protections for Presumptive Historic Resources Listed In 1981 Local Inventory
In an opinion filed on August 31, and later ordered published on September 22, 2026, the Fourth District Court of Appeal (Div. 3) reversed the judgment of the Orange County…
CEQA Developments
CEQA Reform Role Reversal? SB 958 and SB 344 Illustrate How the Legislature Has Stepped Up to Provide CEQA Reform When the Courts Won’t
What a difference a decade can make. Less than a year after I began writing this blog in September 2011, I wrote a post suggesting that – in a “judicial…
CEQA Developments
Fourth District Holds Imperial County’s EIR for Salton Sea Geothermal Power/Lithium Extraction Project Lacked CEQA-Compliant Water Supply and Air Quality Analyses
In an opinion filed August 11, and belatedly ordered partially published on September 2, 2026, the Fourth District Court of Appeal (Div. One) partly reversed the trial court’s judgment denying a petition…
CEQA Developments
First District Affirms Judgment Voiding Class 7 and 8 and Common Sense CEQA Exemptions for Sonoma County’s Groundwater Well Ordinance Amendments; Reverses Portion of Judgment Voiding Ordinance on Public Trust Grounds
In a published decision filed August 4, 2026, the First District Court of Appeal (Div. 2) partially affirmed and partially reversed a judgment granting a writ setting aside Sonoma County’s (“County”) 2023…
CEQA Developments
Tantalizing Tautology: Supreme Court’s Narrow Decision In CEQA Guidelines Class I Exemption Case Holds Exemption’s Plain Language Requires Change in Existing Facilities’ “Use,” Not Environmental Risk of Changed Use, To Be “Negligible”; Reverses and Remands to First District for Further Proceedings Under Proper Standard
The majority today holds that the words “negligible or no expansion of existing or former use” mean “negligible or no expansion of existing or former use.” I agree, of course. …
CEQA Developments
AB 130’s Statewide VMT Mitigation Program: California’s New Framework for CEQA Transportation Mitigation
On June 30, 2026, the Governor's Office of Land Use and Climate Innovation (LCI) released its long-awaited Statewide Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT) Mitigation Program Guidance (“Guidance”), implementing one of the…
CEQA Developments
HCD Issues Guidance on New Housing Element Rezoning CEQA Exemption: Has CEQA Been Removed from the Housing Element Rezoning Process?
For a long time, one of the central tensions in California land use law has been the uneasy relationship between Housing Element Law and CEQA. Under Housing Element Law, local…
CEQA Developments
Preclusion Confusion? First District Holds Plaintiff’s Second CEQA Challenge to Bay Lights 360 Project Time-Barred Due to Preclusive Effect of Prior Unappealed Judgment on Demurrer Dismissing Action on Statute of Limitations Grounds; Finds Encroachment Permit Issued By Responsible Agency Caltrans to Implement Project Did Not Restart Limitations Period
In a partially published opinion filed June 5, 2026, the First District Court of Appeal (Div. 1) affirmed a judgment entered after Defendant and Respondent Bay Area Toll Authority’s (BATA) demurrer…