Here's a deal for you:
Enviros agree to a variety of reforms to the California Environmental Quality Act -- especially constraints on the ability to sue, including possibly limiting standing and prohibiting lawsuits if the umbrella state or federal environmental law has been complied with.
In return, developers agree to ditch the conclusion of Ballona Wetlands Land Trust v. City of Los Angeles, in which the California Supreme Court ruled that natural environmental conditions such as sea-level rise are not subject to CEQA analysis -- for example, in examination of a beachfront project that could be affected by rising waters.
Crazy? Maybe. But it's a deal that prominent CEQA lawyer Michael Zischke of Cox, Castle & Nicholson says could be on the table in Sacramento.
Ballona Wetlands is driving environmentalists crazy because it means they can't use CEQA to deal with sea-level rise. Speaking at Friday's UCLA Land Use Law and Planning Conference in Los Angeles, Zischke said it's a deal that developers might actually take -- largely because, he says, they won't be giving up much. "My view is that Ballona is not that helpful [for developers] because you probably want to look at sea-level rise anyway and put it on the record" in order to reduce the risk of litigation and loss in the courtroom, he said.
Meanwhile, even though the California legislature is more Democratic than ever as a result of last fall's election, that doesn't mean CEQA is sacrosanct. On another panel, lobbyist Tony Rice, who represents many local governments, noted that Sen. Michael Rubio, D-Shafter, has now been installed as chair of the Senate Committee on Environmental Quality. Rubio made a last-ditch effort for CEQA reform in August, only to back off when Senate leader Darrell Steinberg took him to the woodshed.
Rice also mentioned that Rubio's arrival at CEQ coincided with staff changes on the committee. Although he didn't mention any names, longtime CEQ staffer Randy Pestor -- viewed as the legislative staff's leading defender of CEQA -- recently retired.
