Law Alert!

California planning law to reduce greenhouse gas emissions

In 2008 the California legislature adopted Senate Bill 375 (Stats 2008, ch 728), which amends Govt C §§65080, 65400, 65583, 65584.01, 65584.02, 65584.04, 6558, and 65588; adds Govt C §§14522.1, 14522.2, and 65080.01; amends Pub Res C §21061.3; and adds Pub Res C §§21159.28 and 21155-21155.3. This law requires the California Transportation Commission to maintain guidelines for travel demand models used in the development of regional transportation plans by metropolitan planning organizations. Each regional transportation plan is required to adopt a sustainable communities strategy designed to achieve goals for reduction in greenhouse gas emissions from automobiles and light trucks. By September 30, 2010, the State Air Resources Board is required to set greenhouse gas emission reduction targets for 2020 and 2035. A Regional Targets Advisory Committee is to be appointed by the State Air Resources Board to recommend factors and methodologies for setting the targets and to update the targets every 8 years. If the sustainable communities strategy is unable to meet the greenhouse gas emission reduction targets, then the affected metropolitan planning organization is required to prepare an alternative planning strategy to achieve the targets. The sustainable communities or alternative strategies are deemed not to regulate the use of land and are not subject to state approval. Local land use policies are not required to be consistent with the regional transportation plan.

The Planning and Zoning Law requires each local government to prepare and adopt a general plan containing certain mandatory elements. Under existing law, the housing element contains a 5-year schedule of actions to implement the goals of the housing element. This law requires the schedule to include a timetable for implementation, including the rezoning needed to meet housing needs within specified time periods. Under certain conditions, a local government that fails to rezone as required is prohibited from disapproving a housing development project or taking actions that would make the project infeasible. In addition, the project applicant or any interested person could bring a lawsuit to enforce the statute. The court is authorized to compel compliance from a local government and to impose sanctions for not complying with the court order. This law extends the time period for reviewing and revising the housing element to every 8 years for local governments with a metropolitan planning organization, depending on the circumstances.

This law also affects matters concerning the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). A transit priority project that meets certain requirements and is declared by the local legislative body to be a sustainable communities project is exempt from CEQA. The environmental documents for certain other residential projects would be exempt from requirements for information on growth-inducing impacts or impacts from vehicle trips. In addition, the local legislative body is authorized to adopt traffic mitigation measures for transit priority projects that would exempt a transit priority project from compliance with additional traffic mitigation measures.

SB 375 will be covered in detail in the February 2009 update of Practice Under the California Environmental Quality Act, 2d Ed. and in the July 2009 update of California Land Use Practice.