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In an important published opinion filed February 16, 2024, the Fourth District Court of Appeal (Div. 1) held the San Diego County Board of Supervisors committed a prejudicial abuse of discretion in granting project opponents’...more
In a partially published opinion filed September 20, 2023, the First District Court of Appeal (Div. 3) affirmed the Alameda County Superior Court’s judgments denying writ petitions in three partially consolidated CEQA actions...more
The 2021-2022 Legislative Session was light on CEQA amendments, and once again did not produce any significant reform. We saw a continued focus on incentivizing affordable and infill developments on the condition that the...more
While the 2022 Scoping Plan for Achieving Carbon Neutrality (2022 Scoping Plan) recently adopted by the California Air Resources Board (CARB) may benefit infill housing projects, it will likely create additional barriers to...more
On April 20, 2022, the Bay Area Air Quality Management District (BAAQMD) adopted, updated – and significantly changed – thresholds of significance under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) for determining when a...more
Holland & Knight Partner Jennifer L. Hernandez, leader of the firm's West Coast Land Use and Environmental Group, recently authored an industry report for the Center for Jobs & The Economy, whose mission is to identify and...more
On May 12, the Third District Court of Appeal belatedly ordered partially published an opinion it had filed on April 20, 2022, reversing the trial court’s judgment upholding the EIR for lead agency Siskiyou County’s approval...more
ACEEE highlights 10 building energy performance standards to help meet climate goals - Bullet Utility Dive – June 24 - The American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE) released a white paper this Monday...more
On June 12, 2020, the California Court of Appeal in Golden Door Properties, LLC v. County of San Diego, 2020 WL 3119041, handed San Diego County its third loss, by concluding that the County failed to adopt a Climate Action...more
This post is Part Two of our blog series on the 2019 amendments to the CEQA Guidelines. This post focuses on amendments in the areas of greenhouse gas (“GHG”) emissions, energy, and wildfire impacts, as well as a discussion...more
At the end of 2018, the Office of Planning and Research’s (OPR’s) years-long effort (since 2011) to update the Guidelines (CEQA Guidelines) implementing the California Environmental Quality Act became a reality. This...more
Late last month the Governor’s Office of Planning and Research (OPR) released two documents of interest to CEQA practitioners. One is a discussion draft of a “CEQA and Climate Change Advisory.” ...more
The Governor’s Office of Planning and Research (“OPR”) has spent five years drafting a comprehensive update to 30 sections of the California Environmental Quality Act (“CEQA”) Guidelines. The updated text (“Final Text”)...more
Welcome to CEQA News You Can Use, a quarterly publication of Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck Natural Resources lawyers. This publication is intended to provide quick, useful bites of CEQA news that we hope can be a resource...more
Cleveland National Forest Foundation, et al. v. San Diego Association of Governments (2017) __ Cal. 5th __, Supreme Court Case No., S223603 - Judicial deference to a lead agency’s determination regarding the proper...more
On July 13, 2017, the California Supreme Court rendered a 6-1 decision holding that the San Diego Association of Governments’ (SANDAG) 2011 EIR for its Regional Transportation Plan/Sustainable Communities Strategy (RTP/SCS)...more
In a highly anticipated decision, Cleveland National Forest Foundation v. San Diego Association of Governments, the California Supreme Court held recently that an environmental impact report for a regional transportation plan...more
Yesterday, in an opinion authored by Justice Liu, the California Supreme Court ruled that the greenhouse gas analysis in an environmental impact report (“EIR”) prepared for the San Diego Association of Government’s (“SANDAG”)...more
The scientific community largely accepts that the climate is changing, and that there is a “greater than 95 percent” chance that we are the cause. In late 2015, nations around the world gathered in Paris to attempt to combat...more
On May 3–4, 2017, the California Supreme Court heard oral arguments in three cases with significant implications for California land use law. Below we summarize the main issue(s) argued in each matter and possible outcomes....more
In a lengthy published opinion filed November 29, 2016, the First District Court of Appeal rejected all legal challenges to the City of San Francisco’s Final Supplemental Environmental Impact Report (FSEIR) and related land...more
California Governor Jerry Brown signed into law last week two controversial anti-climate change bills that will tighten greenhouse gas (GHG) limits by 40% and increase legislative supervision of the California Air Resources...more
Gov. Brown Expected to Sign Laws that Will Have CEQA Implications - In the final days of its session, the California Legislature passed two climate change bills that expand existing laws aimed at reducing statewide...more
Court endorses significance threshold based on consistency with statewide GHG reduction goals, but nonetheless invalidates State EIR utilizing that threshold. On Monday November 30, 2015, the California Supreme Court...more
Two out of three ain’t bad. Climate change policy advocates may find themselves quoting Meat Loaf with the enactment of Senate Bill (SB) 350, which California’s Legislature passed last month and which Governor Jerry...more