On-Demand Webinar | Charting a Course for Offshore Wind Energy in California
[WEBINAR] Update on the California Environmental Quality Act: What’s New for 2018
[WEBINAR] Building a Solar Energy Project in 2018
How Trump's Infrastructure Plan Impacts the Energy Industry
BB&K's Charity Schiller Discusses CEQA Baseline
Several modest amendments to CEQA took effect on Jan. 1, 2024. Our CEQA News You Can Use team summarized a few of changes to keep in mind in the new year....more
In a published opinion filed on January 17, 2024, the Second District Court of Appeal (Div. 5) reversed a trial court judgment overturning a mitigated negative declaration (MND) and requiring an EIR for a 42-single family...more
2023 served up roughly the same number of published appellate CEQA cases as 2022 with a defense win percentage of over 80 percent, which has been the case in many, if not all, of the past ten years. A prominent theme of...more
In Guerrero et al v. City of Los Angeles (January 17, 2024, No. B326033 c/w B327032) ___Cal.App.5th___, the Second District Court of Appeal held that the project opponents did not timely file their CEQA lawsuit. The...more
The Sixth District Court of Appeal, in Santa Rita Union School District v. City of Salinas (2023), 94 Cal.App.5th 298, reversed the lower court, finding that the City of Salinas’ (“City”) final programmatic environmental...more
The 2023 California Legislative Session, which closed on September 14, was dominated yet again by efforts to address the state’s continued housing crisis. For the last several years, we have written about many bills enacted...more
In this alert, Brownstein outlines Gov. Gavin Newsom’s latest swing at the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) and provides the updates (and potentially what to expect) regarding two new bills introduced by Sen. Scott...more
Noisy college students, the new CEQA impact? Would you be surprised to learn that college students can throw noisy parties? Uh, no, but it may be a surprise that they constitute a potentially significant environmental impact...more
In Citizens’ Committee to Complete the Refuge v. City of Newark (2021) 74 Cal.App.5th 460, the First District Court of Appeal affirmed the trial court’s ruling that a residential project in a specific plan area in the city of...more
CEQA Case Report: Understanding the Judicial Landscape for Development - Public agencies prevailed in 71% of CEQA cases analyzed. Latham & Watkins is pleased to present its fifth annual CEQA Case Report. Throughout...more
The California Legislature and Governor approved three key housing bills in 2021, to facilitate housing production in California. SB 8 (Senator Skinner) extends and expands the Housing Crisis Act of 2019 (SB 330). SB 9...more
In an opinion filed on December 16, 2021, and belatedly ordered published on January 13, 2022, the Fourth District Court of Appeal rejected a CEQA challenge to a small multifamily project in the City of Santa Cruz. Ocean...more
While the 2020-2021 California Legislative Session was dominated by the ongoing COVID-19 health crisis and the ultimately unsuccessful Gubernatorial recall election, there were significant efforts made to change statewide...more
In 2019, the California legislature passed, and Governor Newsom approved, new legislation impacting the development industry. Effective January 1, 2020, the laws summarized in the link below will impact the development...more
California Department of Fish and Wildlife Annual Adjustments - The California Department of Fish and Wildlife announced an increase in filing fees for all California Environmental Quality Act Notices of Determination...more
During the week of August 19, 2019, both the Appellate and Supreme Courts of California issued decisive opinions clarifying the parameters of agency action subject to environmental review under the California Environmental...more
Businesses seeking discretionary approvals or development permits are often subject to the California Environmental Quality Act. CEQA, the state’s environmental protection law, requires California public agencies to analyze...more
In February, the San Francisco Planning Department issued the first quarterly performance report for implementation of its Process Improvements Plan, a program intended to overhaul the project review process. ...more
The Fourth District Court of Appeal held that the project baseline under CEQA for construction of a new home did not include demolition of a potential historic structure that had occurred before submittal of a permit...more
When a governmental agency improperly denies a permit application for a new development, and the proposed development is thereby delayed, does this result in a regulatory taking? ...more
In a decision that allows progress on development of new housing in a time of great need in California, a California appellate court upheld a trial court ruling that had rejected several legal challenges to a residential...more
Welcome to CEQA News You Can Use, a quarterly publication of Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, LLP’s Natural Resources lawyers. This publication is intended to provide quick, useful bites of CEQA news that we hope can be a...more
The San Francisco Planning Director issued a Bulletin in December 2017 explaining how SB 35 will be implemented locally now that it is effective, as of January 1, 2018. Among other things, the Bulletin includes a new...more
In March 2017, the Sixth Appellate District issued its decision in Aptos Council v. County of Santa Cruz, which rejected a two-pronged challenge to the County of Santa Cruz’s adoption of three zoning ordinances revising...more
The California Court of Appeal for the Sixth Appellate District recently held, in Aptos Council v. County of Santa Cruz, 10 Cal. App. 5th 266 (2017) that environmental review under the California Environmental Quality Act...more