SB 1375: California Environmental Quality Act: exemption: urban intermodal rail station project.

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 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.

Existing law exempts from CEQA a public project for the improvement, institution, or increase of passenger rail service, including the maintenance, construction, or rehabilitation of stations, terminals, or existing operations facilities that will be exclusively used by zero-emission trains or specified rolling stock or locomotives, as provided.

This bill would exempt from CEQA CEQA, except as specified, a public urban, intermodal rail station project within a long-urbanized area within the statewide passenger rail network, at which high-capacity light, commuter, and intercity rail services converge that meets specified conditions, including, among other requirements, a requirement for compliance with various environmental laws and for the adoption of a plan for how any displacement from the project will be fully addressed, as provided. The bill would require a lead agency, if it determines that a project is not subject to CEQA pursuant to this exemption, and it determines to carry out the project, to file a notice of exemption with the Office of Land Use and Climate Innovation and the county clerk of the county in which the project is located, as provided. The bill would permit exemption only for projects for which a notice of exemption is filed before January 1, 2032. Because a lead agency would be required to determine the applicability of this exemption, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program.

The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement.

This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.