Gov. Newsom is blasting CEQA. What is it and why does it matter?

"Short for the California Environmental Quality Act, the state’s landmark environmental protection law affects a wide range of land-use decisions, from which low-income apartments win approval to where oil well permits are issued.

Environmentalists and neighborhood groups champion the law as fundamental to preserving natural habitats and protecting public health."

https://www.santacruzsentinel.com/2023/03/06/newsom-is-blasting-ceqa-what-is-it-and-why-does-it-matter/

#CEQA #EnvironmentalLaw #NaturalHabitat

At least #ceqa reform is on the way with #AB1700:

https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202320240AB1700

I hate how #ceqa **gets abused being used as a tool to block housing **especially when it comes to college towns like #Berkeley which **REALLY **need #housing for students and residents.

CEQA needs to be 100% reformed so it doesn't block good projects like housing, #transit, #highspeedrail, #mobility projects, etc and makes harmful projects such as #highway expansions entirely unfeasible.

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2023-02-24/court-ruling-halts-uc-berkeley-from-building-student-housing-at-peoples-park

UC #Berkeley People's Park project stopped dead in its tracks by court ruling. UC “failed to assess potential noise impacts from loud student parties in residential neighborhoods near the campus" and shoulda done a #CEQA study. Given Berkeley's racist history of exclusionary zoning, double ironic. Welcome to the #NIMBY slipper slope.

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2023-02-24/court-ruling-halts-uc-berkeley-from-building-student-housing-at-peoples-park

“Much more housing within California would be built if legislators were to rewrite the state’s antiquated environmental laws; reduce regulatory burdens that drive constructions costs on affordable housing projects to levels that exceed those of luxury homes; and provide communities with financial support and incentives where more housing, particularly high-density housing, makes sense, with projects that achieve community buy-in.”

https://www.hoover.org/research/californias-failed-soviet-style-housing-mandates-should-end-now

#CEQA #California #affordablehousing

Los Angeles Times reporter Sammy Roth interviewed Dan Selmi (an excellent #EnvironmentalLaw prof) about the #MineralKing lawsuit. Selmi highlights the crucial importance of #CitizenSuits for compelling government agencies to consider the environmental impacts of their actions.

“Public agencies now have to justify what they’ve done in much greater depth than they did before. It’s like night and day. They have to be concerned with the law.“

Protect #NEPA and #CEQA

https://www.latimes.com/environment/newsletter/2023-01-05/how-disneys-sierra-nevada-ski-resort-changed-environmentalism-forever-boiling-point

“A Christmas Eve surprise from Court of Appeal in UC Berkeley "students are pollution" CEQA case.

tl,dr: UC Berkeley & state housing + antidiscrimination policy got a lump of coal in their stockings.
CEQA is about to get much, much worse unless the Leg or the AG steps in. 1/25”
#housing #california #CEQA #Berkeley

https://twitter.com/CSElmendorf/status/1606827857078292480

@alerigolon YES! Great point, and I agree with you. The important distinction is that Coyotl + Macehauli are using black walnut protections to block developers who skirted/were exempted from the #CEQA process altogether and whose projects would have driven up costs in historically Latinx neighborhoods in east LA. Their activism is holding city governments accountable, too.

RT @DaytonPubPolicy@twitter.com

I feel good this morning seeing FIVE letters to @MontereyHerald@twitter.com editor supporting lights at Monterey High School football field & decrying #CEQA lawsuits to stop them from ever being installed.
People need to have courage to go public in support of them!
https://www.montereyherald.com/2022/12/05/letters-to-the-editor-dec-6-2022/

🐦🔗: https://twitter.com/DaytonPubPolicy/status/1600181061019144197

Where are the #LosAngeles #LongBeach #California people? Are activists here or migrating in? #Port #AirQuality #CleanTrucks #CEQA #ClimateCrisis #AirPollution #Smog #LungBeach #ToxicLA