California Environmental Quality Act: administrative and judicial procedures.

(1) 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. Among other changes, this bill would repeal certain obsolete and duplicative provisions from CEQA and make nonsubstantive changes to certain other provisions. (2) CEQA provides that in certain specified actions or proceedings, the plaintiff or petitioner may elect to prepare the record of proceedings, subject to certification of its accuracy by the public agency. This bill would authorize the public agency to deny the request of the plaintiff or petitioner to prepare the record of proceedings, as provided, in which case the bill would require the public agency or the real party in interest to bear the costs of preparation and certification of the record of proceedings and would prohibit the recovery of those costs from the plaintiff or petitioner. The bill would require the court to schedule a case management conference within 30 days of the filing of an action to review the scope, timing, and cost of the record of proceedings. (3) CEQA establishes specified administrative and judicial review procedures for the administrative and judicial review of the EIR and approvals granted for a project related to the development of a specified football stadium and the modernization of the downtown convention center in the City of Los Angeles and for a project related to an entertainment and sports center in the City of Sacramento. CEQA requires the lead agency and applicant to implement specified measures, as a condition of approval of those projects. This bill would repeal those provisions.