Topic
CEQA Exemptions
26 published works
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…
California Land Use & Development Law Report
Court Overturns County’s Decision to Require an EIR For Lack of Substantial Evidence
By Marie Cooper
The County of San Diego planning staff found a project qualified for a CEQA exemption under Guideline 15183, which applies to projects consistent with a general plan for which an…
California Land Use & Development Law Report
Class 7 CEQA Exemption Requires Only a Showing of Protection of a Natural Resource, Not the Entire Environment, and a Potential For Environmental Impacts Does Not Prevent Use of a CEQA Exemption
By Geoffrey Robinson, Marie Cooper
A court upheld an ordinance that restricted development standards in designated overlay zones to protect wildlife corridors, finding that it did not establish a “use” that would be subject to…
Administrative and Regulatory
Neighbor’s General Complaints of Environmental Concerns Insufficient to Exhaust Administrative Remedies as to CEQA Exemption Determination
By Tina Thomas, Samuel D. Bacal-Graves
In Arcadians for Environmental Preservation v. City of Arcadia (2023) 88 Cal.App.5th 418, the Second District Court of Appeal found no error in a trial court ruling that there had been…
California Land Use & Development Law Report
CEQA Categorical Exemption Must Be Agendized under Brown Act
On February 15, 2023, the California Supreme Court issued an order depublishing this decision. While still binding on the parties to the case, the decision can no longer be cited…
CEQA Chronicles
Local Agency Violated the Brown Act by Failing to Properly Agendize CEQA Exemption
*Note - On February 15, 2023, the California Supreme Court denied petitions for review that were filed by the City of Thousand Oaks and the Real Party in Interest in…
CEQA Developments
First District Affirms Judgment Upholding Statutory CEQA Exemption For Housing Project Consistent With EIR-Reviewed Specific Plan, Rejects Claims That Changes In Project Or Circumstances Required Subsequent EIR
In an opinion filed on December 29, 2021, and later ordered published on January 25, 2022, the First District Court of Appeal (Div. 4) affirmed a judgment upholding the City…
CEQA Developments
First District Holds SWRCB Small Domestic Water Use Registration Is CEQA-Exempt Ministerial Act: “CEQA Does Not Regulate Ministerial Decisions – Full Stop.”
In a published opinion filed December 15, 2021, the First District Court of Appeal (Div. 5) affirmed a trial court’s judgment entered after sustaining a demurrer to a writ petition…
California Land Use & Development Law Report
CEQA Existing Facilities Exemption Inapplicable to Unlined Landfills and Exhaustion of Administrative Remedies not Required Where Public Notice of Intent to Rely on a CEQA Exemption is Inadequate
By John Morris
A California Court of Appeal held that CEQA’s issue exhaustion requirement did not preclude a challenge to Inyo County’s exemption determinations for condemnation proceedings and expanded operation of unlined landfills…
California Land Use & Development Law Report
Court Upholds Class 1 Exemption for Improvements to Amusement Park in City of San Diego
The court of appeal found that an amended and restated lease requiring upgrades and improvements to an existing amusement park was exempt from the requirements of CEQA under the Class…