Practical Recommendations For Implementing California Supreme Court's Latest CEQA Decision

Jennifer L. Hernandez is a Partner and Daniel R. Golub an Associate in our San Francisco office.

Court: CEQA Does Not Generally Require an Analysis of Environment's Impacts on a Project

HIGHLIGHTS:

• The California Supreme Court recently held that the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) generally does not require analysis or mitigation of the impact of existing environmental conditions on a project.
• However, the decision creates a new legal ambiguity by concluding that the environment's impacts on a project may need to be included in CEQA if a project may "exacerbate" an existing environmental condition.
• The cost of completing what is currently the standard suite of CEQA topics will be unchanged, but lead agencies and project proponents have an important new litigation defense for challenges involving the environment's impact on a project.