Happy New Year everyone! After surviving the Mayan Calendar Apocalypse and then the photo finish on the Fiscal Cliff it feels great to enter the New Year free from pending doom. Of course, they say bad things come in threes . . . can you say “Seattle Kings Supersonics??”
If the Kings move to Seattle they would be escaping the auspices of CEQA (California Environmental Quality Act) were they to stay and build a new arena. Of course, that isn’t why the Maloofs are so anxious to sell the team; but it is simply an example of one of the ongoing reasons why it is so challenging and expensive to deliver a new project in California and provide new economic development opportunities.
The topic of CEQA reform resurfaced as the Great Recession began, as a means of lowering obstacles and creating more certainty for owners/developers to move forward on a project during lean times. Last August there was a bill on the table to provide significant reform; however, State Senate President Pro Tem Steinberg allowed it to die when he said “for all of its strengths and its faults,” the law was far too important to rewrite in the last days of the session. Given that it was an election year, I’m somewhat skeptical that this was the underlying reason for the delay. However, with the election done and some of the doom I mentioned above behind us, now is the time to update this 42 year old law.
We have all heard of projects being delayed for years due to CEQA related lawsuits, some with merit, but many which are dubious. Broad CEQA reform is absolutely necessary to update the law with a focus on streamlining the process. ACEC is currently advocating for such broad CEQA reform. Hopefully 2013 is the year that said reform will happen allowing projects to move through the pipeline faster, ultimately leading to more engineering and surveying, and of course, economic development.
According to a recent article in the Sacramento Business Journal (January 18, 2013), both Steinberg and Assembly Speaker Perez are both in favor of CEQA reform happening in 2013. Let’s hope that there is action behind their words and that the reform stays focused on “more efficient, more timely and less expensive” as Steinberg is quoted saying in the article.
To that end, for those of you planning to attend Legislative Visit Day (right around the corner on February 20th), CEQA reform is a great topic to bring up in your discussions. Explaining how the purpose of the reform isn’t necessarily about getting permission to grade acres of wetlands, but rather creating a process that is less litigious and more straightforward will be an important message for the lawmakers to hear.
With some of the doom of 2012 past, my cautious optimism and “on the fence” prediction that 2013 will be an improvement has resurfaced. Let’s thank ACEC leaders for helping keep CEQA reform in the forefront and hope that it is one of the items that can be “checked off” in an improved 2013.
