Part two of a three-part series - Governor Gavin Newsom signed two major budget trailer bills, AB 130 and SB 131, into law on June 30, 2025, bringing significant amendments to the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA)...more
Part one of a three-part series -
Governor Gavin Newsom signed two sweeping budget trailer bills, Assembly Bill 130 (AB 130) and Senate Bill 131 (SB 131), into law on June 30, 2025, enacting meaningful changes to the...more
7/8/2025
/ Affordable Housing ,
California ,
CEQA ,
CEQA Reform ,
Environmental Impact Report (EIR) ,
Housing Developers ,
Infill Development ,
Multi-Family Development ,
New Legislation ,
Regulatory Reform ,
Zoning Laws
The week of June 23, 2024, in Ohio v. Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Supreme Court clarified in a 5-4 decision that if a federal agency fails to provide a reasoned response to comments raised during the rulemaking...more
7/16/2024
/ Administrative Procedure Act ,
Air Quality Standards ,
Arbitrary and Capricious ,
Clean Air Act ,
Comment Period ,
Environmental Policies ,
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ,
Likelihood of Success ,
Ohio v Environmental Protection Agency ,
Public Comment ,
Rulemaking Process ,
SCOTUS ,
State Implementation Plans (SIPs)
This is the fifth in a series of six eAlerts on the Bipartisan Permitting Reform Implementation Rule published in the Federal Register on May 1, 2024 (Final Rule) by the Council for Environmental Quality (CEQ). The Final Rule...more
6/5/2024
/ CEQ ,
Climate Action Plan ,
Climate Change ,
Environmental Assessments ,
Environmental Impact Report (EIR) ,
Environmental Policies ,
Final Rules ,
Greenhouse Gas Emissions ,
Infrastructure ,
NEPA ,
Real Estate Development ,
Regulatory Reform
On February 12, 2024, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) published a final rule creating new permitting pathways and revising existing regulations for the take of bald eagles (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) and golden...more
2/22/2024
/ Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act ,
Conservation ,
Endangered Species ,
Environmental Policies ,
General Permit ,
Incidental Take Permits ,
Infrastructure ,
Renewable Energy ,
Transmission Lines ,
US Fish and Wildlife Service ,
Wind Farm ,
Wind Power
On November 30, 2023, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) published a final rule listing a distinct population segment (DPS) of the North American wolverine (Gulo gulo luscas) as a threatened species under the...more
In a recent California trial court decision, Casa Mira Homeowners Association v. California Coastal Commission (Casa Mira), the court added another significant page in the decades-long debate over which coastal properties are...more
On August 11, 2023, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) published a proposed rule to delist the Apache trout (Oncorhynchus apache) under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) due to the species’ recovery. The Apache...more
8/21/2023
/ Conservation ,
Critical Habitat ,
Delisting ,
Endangered Species ,
Endangered Species Act (ESA) ,
Environmental Policies ,
ESA Listings ,
Habitat Conservation Plan ,
Regulatory Reform ,
Rulemaking Process ,
US Fish and Wildlife Service
During the summer of 2023, the California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) released its updated Statewide Determination Summary for Senate Bill (SB) 35. In its report, HCD determined only 7% of California...more
8/16/2023
/ Affordable Housing ,
Annual Reports ,
California ,
CEQA ,
Community Development ,
Community Development Entities ,
Construction Project ,
Environmental Policies ,
Housing Developers ,
Housing Market ,
Multi-Family Development ,
Real Estate Development
On July 1, 2023, Senate Bill (SB) 6 (Caballero) – also known as the Middle Class Housing Act of 2022 – went into effect. Under the bill, if a project site is currently zoned for commercial retail or parking use, a developer...more
Effective July 1, 2023, a new chapter in the California Government Code provides for qualifying multifamily housing developments of five or more units to be a “by right” use and subject only to a streamlined ministerial...more
This month, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) published the latest update to its National Listing Workplan (Workplan). This update to the Workplan is the Service’s latest since March 2022, and projects the...more
Last week, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia issued a ruling allowing the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) to continue pursuing its large Endangered Species Act (ESA) lawsuit against the U.S. Fish and...more
Earlier this month, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit issued a ruling holding that the United States Fish and Wildlife Service’s (Service) decision not to modify a recovery plan for the grizzly bear (ursus...more
1/30/2023
/ Administrative Procedure Act ,
Biodiversity ,
Conservation ,
Critical Habitat ,
Endangered Species ,
Endangered Species Act (ESA) ,
Environmental Policies ,
ESA Listings ,
Habitat Conservation Plan ,
Recovery Plans ,
Regulatory Reform ,
US Fish and Wildlife Service