Land use planning.

(1) The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) requires a lead agency to prepare, or cause to be prepared, and certify the completion of, an environmental impact report on a project, as defined, that it proposes to carry out or approve that may have a significant effect on the environment, as defined, or to adopt a negative declaration if it finds that the project will not have that effect. CEQA requires a lead agency to call a scoping meeting for a project of statewide, regional, or areawide significance, and requires the lead agency to provide notice of at least one of those scoping meetings to specified entities, including a county or city that borders on a county or city within which the project is located, unless otherwise designated annually by agreement between the lead agency and county or city. This bill would authorize the referral of a proposed action to adopt or substantially amend a general plan to a city or county within or abutting the area covered by the proposal by a planning agency prior to action by a legislative body to adopt or amend the general plan to be conducted concurrently with the scoping meeting. The city or county would be authorized to submit specified comments at the scoping meeting. (2) Existing law authorizes a county and a city to agree upon a procedure for referral to, and comment by, the city or county concerning the other entity's proposals to adopt or amend all or part of a general or specific plan or zoning ordinance, as specified. This bill would make a technical, nonsubstantive change to this authorization.