Environmental quality: California Environmental Quality Act: bicycle transportation plan.

The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) requires a lead agency, as defined, to prepare, or cause to be prepared, and certify the completion of, an environmental impact report (EIR) on a project that it proposes to carry out or approve that may have a significant effect on the environment or to adopt a negative declaration if it finds that the project will not have that effect. CEQA also requires a lead agency to prepare a mitigated negative declaration for a project that may have a significant effect on the environment if revisions in the project would avoid or mitigate that effect and there is no substantial evidence that the project, as revised, would have a significant effect on the environment. CEQA requires the lead agencies to make specified findings in an EIR. Existing law establishes the Office of Planning and Research (OPR) in the Governor's office. Existing law requires OPR to assist with, among other things, the orderly preparation of programs of transportation. Existing law authorizes a local agency that determines that a project is not subject to CEQA pursuant to certain exemptions and approves or determines to carry out that project, to file notice of the determination with the county clerk in the county in which the project is located. This bill, until January 1, 2018, would exempt from CEQA a bicycle transportation plan for an urbanized area, as specified, and would also require a local agency that determines that the bicycle transportation plan is exempt under this provision and approves or determines to carry out that project, to file notice of the determination with OPR and the county clerk. This bill would require OPR to post specified information on its Internet Web site, as prescribed.