CEQA Reform News: Mayors from Five of California’s Largest Cities Urge Legislature to Reform CEQA

 In Case You Missed It: Mayors from Five of California’s Largest Cities Urge Legislature to Reform CEQA 

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SACRAMENTO – Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed, San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee, Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson and Santa Ana Mayor Miguel Pulido urged the legislature to prioritize CEQA reform this year. In an opinion piece in today’s Los Angeles Daily News they said, “It’s time to update CEQA so that it fulfills its original intent – providing abundant public access and review of information in order to better protect our precious environment – rather than be used as a means of delay or obfuscation.”

Excerpts from “Fix the California Environmental Quality Act Now” below:

• “…today CEQA is too-often used by those who simply seek to disrupt or complicate projects, oftentimes for reasons that have nothing to do with protecting the environment.  These lawsuits and the threat of lawsuits are sometimes used to stop exactly the type of growth that we as local officials are trying to promote – infill development, expansion and improvement of public transit and bicycle facilities, affordable housing, schools, hospitals, and all manner of public works.”

• “CEQA challenges also unnecessarily drive up costs for taxpayers – by forcing public resources to be spent defending against lawsuits and by delaying public works projects that are funded by public dollars.”