KEEP CEQA’S GOALS, BUT END ITS EXPLOITATION

The passage of the California Environmental Quality Act in 1970 was heralded as one more sign of the Golden State’s commitment to protecting the environment. The law was significantly more stringent than a landmark parallel federal measure that took effect earlier that year. While CEQA has certainly done its job of forcing local governments to make developers mitigate the environmental effects of their projects, its sweeping language has also made it an all-purpose tool for anyone who can hire a lawyer to prevent or impede construction of nearly any project with legal challenges or threats. Every governor over the last 40 years has denounced its use as greenmail to force labor concessions from builders or as a bludgeon to prevent the construction of needed housing or both. The last thing California needs is for the law to become an ever more potent weapon for NIMBYs and obstructionists.

Alas, that is just what happened Friday when the 1st District Court of Appeal blocked UC Berkeley’s plans to build a housing complex for 1,100 students and 125 formerly homeless people on UC-owned land near campus. The court sided with project opponents and said UC had “failed to assess potential noise impacts from loud student parties in residential neighborhoods near the campus.” In so doing, it told critics that they can use CEQA to wield stereotypes against groups they find undesirable.

After the ruling, Gov. Gavin Newsom said “the law needs to change” and vowed to work with lawmakers this year to “build the housing we desperately need.” As time passes, then-Gov. Jerry Brown’s 2011 remark that CEQA reform is “the Lord’s work” seems less a pithy one-liner and more like gospel.