California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA)

What is the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA)?

The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA - pronounce “sea-kwa”) generally requires state and local government agencies to inform decision makers and the public about the potential environmental impacts of proposed projects, and to reduce those environmental impacts to the extent feasible. If a project subject to CEQA will not cause any adverse environmental impacts, a public agency may adopt a brief document known as a Negative Declaration. If the project might cause significant environmental impacts, the public agency must prepare a more detailed study called an Environmental Impact Report (EIR).

What is an Environmental Impact Report (EIR)?

An EIR contains in-depth studies of potential impacts, measures to reduce or avoid those impacts, and an analysis of alternatives to the project. A key feature of the CEQA process is the opportunity for the public to review and provide input on both Negative Declarations and EIRs. A project-level EIR examines the environmental impacts of a specific development project. This type of EIR focuses primarily on the changes in the environment that would result from the development project, and examines all phases of the project including planning, construction, and operation. In contrast, a programmatic EIR is a type of EIR allowed under CEQA that is used to evaluate a plan or program that has multiple components or actions that are related either geographically, through application of rules or regulations, or as logical parts of a long-term plan. This is the type of EIR that will be conducted for the Housing Element of the General Plan.

How does CEQA affect the Housing Element?

CEQA is a Decision-Making Tool

The Housing Element Update EIR will contain a project description, including maps of the City and the region, a general description of the changes that are needed to update the City’s current Housing Element, objectives of the project, and approval actions required for adoption of the Housing Element Update. Because the number, location, and densities of specific sites that will be included to meet the City’s RHNA allocation have not been finalized, the project description will use two alternatives or scenarios to describe the range of possible sites and densities under consideration. The EIR will analyze the impacts associated with these two scenarios as well as presenting a number of other alternatives and will be circulated as a Draft EIR for public comment prior to finalization. Also, the EIR will not make a recommendation on any scenario or alternative, and is intended to inform public agency decision makers and the public about potential impacts of the Housing Element Update, possible ways to minimize significant impacts, and reasonable alternatives

What is the timeline for CEQA?

The City is faced with a variety of statutory requirements, including a deadline for completing the Housing Element by January 2023. ABAG will issue draft RHNA allocations in late spring/early summer, followed by an appeal period summer/fall, with the final allocations likely issued by the end of 2021. The environmental review process will take approximately one year, with a Draft EIR anticipated at the end of 2021.  The Final EIR would need to be completed prior to the deadline for meeting AB 2923, which is July 1, 2022.  AB 2923 (2018) requires that properties owned by BART around its stations be upzoned to at least 75 du/acre for transit-oriented development (TOD) projects. Click here to visit the AB2923 BART Bill page.

While the environmental consultant prepares the Draft EIR, the GPAC will continue its activities, including educating the public, engaging the public through GPAC meetings and Housing Workshops, reviewing housing opportunity sites, and discussing the goals, policies and programs desired for the next housing element. Ultimately the GPAC will forward its recommendations to the Planning Commission and the City Council. While the draft CEQA scenarios were based on a preliminary understanding of potential opportunity sites, the list may be revised, e.g., if new sites are identified.

What are the CEQA Scenarios?

At its April 26, 2021 meeting, the City Council discussed and voted on two scenarios to be analyzed in the EIR intended to give the GPAC, Planning Commission and City Council flexibility in crafting the best approach for the 2023 Housing Element. The first scenario distributes the anticipated RHNA allocation over a wider area that includes the BART station sites, the Deer Hill Corridor, the Downtown Core, the East and West Ends of the Downtown, and on the DeSilva property near Oakwood. A second scenario locates all of the RHNA allocation units without the existing boundaries of the Downtown (Core, East and West Ends). 

The evaluation of these scenarios will provide clear alternatives based on geography and allow the City to ultimately decide on one or the other or a hybrid of the two. The goal of the two CEQA scenarios is to provide a comprehensive analysis of each, from which the City can "sculpt" the development patterns best suited to the City for inclusion in the Housing Element in conformance with State law.

Both CEQA scenarios strive to reach the RHNA allocation with a buffer of about 60%, which could be modified as opportunity sites are refined. Ultimately, the intention is to study alternatives in the EIR that fully accommodate the RHNA allocation and some percentage of a buffer so the City is confident that the Housing Element can remain compliant with the No Net Loss provisions of State law throughout the eight-year cycle. Whether the buffer is 60% or some other number will be decided after the CEQA analysis is complete.

In each scenario illustrated below, there is a row named "scattered sites." This includes sites that are not in or around the Downtown such, as Bollinger Canyon (a 5th Cycle opportunity site near the border with Moraga), the Terraces of Lafayette, and unmapped sites (e.g., individual single-family development and accessory dwelling units). Current projects in the entitlement pipeline or under construction that receive a certificate of occupancy after June 30, 2022, will be counted toward the 6" Cycle RHNA allocation.

Who is the Environmental Consultant for the Housing Element?

At the August 12, 2020 meeting, the City Council approved a contract for Environmental Science Associates (ESA) to serve as the CEQA consultant.