CEQA Changes Narrowed, Broader Effort Delayed (Again)

Steinberg had been pushing a bill that would speed up the state’s cumbersome environmental review process for infill development projects.  Instead, facing pressure from business groups and Governor Jerry Brown’s administration on one side and environmental groups on the other, Steinberg is holding off on his broader CEQA bill – at least for now.

Instead, he’s taking a couple of provisions from that bill and adding them to a separate measure – a measure intended to ensure a new basketball arena for his hometown Sacramento Kings gets built to meet an NBA deadline.

This is the second consecutive year that Steinberg has pulled the plug on CEQA legislation at the last minute.  Last year at this time, he promised to spend all of this year working with stakeholders to make a deal – a deal which, one year later, has still eluded him.