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LAW OFFICES OF BEST BEST & KRIEGER LLP February 18, 2003 CEOA UPDATE TO: PROJECT 5 (CEQA GUIDELINES) CLIENTS FROM: BEST BEST & KRIEGER LLP RE: YEAR 2003 UPDATE TO LOCAL GUIDELINES FOR IMPLEMENTING THE CALIFORNIA ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY ACT ("CEQA") 2002 CEQA LEGISLATION During the 2002 legislative session, several bills were signed into law by the Governor which affect CEQA. Several of these bills made such significant changes that they warrant substantive discussion in this memorandum and changes to your Local Guidelines. A. Senate Bill 1393 ("SB 1393") In approving SB 1393, the California Legislature adopted a number of revisions to the State CEQA Guidelines which became effective January 1, 2003. These changes are reflected in a number of provisions in your Local Guidelines. The more significant changes made by SB 1393 are as follows: Mandatory Appeals Process Under CEQA, a lead agency may delegate the responsibility for approving and certifying an environmental document to a nonelected decisionmaking body. SB 1393 revises existing CEQA statutes to state that whenever a nonelected decisionmaking body, such as a planning department, adopts or certifies any environmental document, that decision may be appealed to the agency's elected decisionmaking body. In order to comply with this new provision, public agencies must develop a policy to review appeals from the environmental decisions of nonelected decisionmaking bodies. This policy should be applied consistently and made available to the public in writing. This change is described in Section 2.03 of your Local Guidelines. 2. Petitioner's Request for the Administrative Record Must be Served Within 10 Days SB 1393 provides that in any action challenging a public agency's actions under CEQA, the petitioner must personally serve the public agency with a request for the preparation of the administrative record within ten (10) business days of filing the challenge. RVPLT9 ELC`:643782