Navigating Environmental Restrictions on Alternative Project Delivery for Complex Infrastructure Projects
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[WEBINAR] Update on the California Environmental Quality Act: What’s New for 2018
City of Los Angeles Planning Department - Annual Increase to Planning Applications and Affordable Housing Linkage Fees - On July 1, 2024, the annual increases to the Planning and Land Use Fees and the Affordable Housing...more
Welcome to “CEQA News You Can Use,” a quarterly production of Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, LLP’s Natural Resources lawyers. This publication provides quick, useful bites of CEQA news, which we hope can be a resource for...more
Senate Bill (SB) 131 includes important California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) exemptions for qualified advanced manufacturing projects, health centers and rural clinics, childcare centers, food banks, farmworker...more
Following up on our earlier coverage of the new California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) exemption passed as part of budget trailer bill AB 130, another significant CEQA pathway was created through its companion...more
On July 3, 2025, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) issued a final rule revising its regulations implementing the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA) to remove references to the recently rescinded...more
On Monday, June 30, 2025, Governor Gavin Newsom signed into law two bills, AB 130 and SB 131, which provide new exemptions from, and streamlines the process, under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). AB 130...more
On June 6, 2025, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) announced that it has prepared a revised draft environmental impact statement (EIS) and revised draft plant pest...more
In a partially published 102-page opinion filed June 26, 2025, the Second District Court of Appeal (Div. 7) resolved cross-appeals by affirming the trial court’s judgment invalidating Los Angeles County’s 2019 EIR...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
On June 30, 2025, Governor Newsom signed two budget trailer bills into law: Assembly Bill 130 and Senate Bill 131, which reform the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) effective immediately. As explained by the...more
Several high-profile species — including the burrowing owl, Crotch’s bumble bee, western Joshua tree, western spadefoot toad, and the monarch butterfly — have recently been elevated to candidate status under either the...more
On October 10, 2024, the California Fish and Game Commission (Commission) unanimously voted to designate the western burrowing owl (Athene cunicularia hypugaea) as a candidate species under the California Endangered Species...more
On May 29, 2025, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a decision in Seven County Infrastructure Coalition v. Eagle County, Colorado, a case concerning the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) that limits judicial review of...more
Seven County Infrastructure Coalition et al. v. Eagle County, Colorado, et al. The U.S. Supreme Court recently clarified the scope of federal agency review requirements under the National Environmental Policy Act (“NEPA”)...more
On May 29, the Supreme Court issued a unanimous opinion in Seven County Infrastructure Coalition v. Eagle County, Colorado that dramatically changes the way courts scrutinize federal agencies’ environmental reviews under the...more
The new administration has repeatedly expressed its staunch support for nuclear energy. President Trump’s first-day executive order “Unleashing American Energy” specifically encouraged the development of nuclear energy...more
Effective July 1, 2024, the California Governor’s Office of Planning and Research (OPR) was renamed to the Governor’s Office of Land Use and Climate Innovation (LCI). The announcement from the Governor’s Office regarding this...more
President Trump’s January 31, 2025, executive order (EO), Unleashing Prosperity Through Deregulation, and the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) February 25 interim final rule removing CEQ regulations...more
Stakeholders should stay informed as state and federal officials advance plans and policies for water conservation, water quality, and climate resilience in California....more
In a published opinion filed March 14, 2025, the First District Court of Appeal (Div. 2) reversed the trial court’s judgment upholding a Mitigated Negative Declaration (MND) for a four-story, 75-room hotel/meeting...more
On February 20, 2025, Senator Scott Wiener introduced Senate Bill No. 607 (SB 607), a proposed law that is relatively short in text length, but which would engender major CEQA reforms if enacted as currently drafted. The...more
On January 21, 2025, Coblentz litigation partner Skye Langs presented for the Bar Association of San Francisco’s Real Property section on the following real estate and land use cases from 2024...more
Los Angeles County - Executive Order Streamlines Path to Rebuild Homes, Businesses, and Communities Destroyed by Los Angeles Firestorms - In response to the multiple firestorms in Los Angeles County that started on January 7,...more
The California Court of Appeal’s recent decision in V Lions Farming, LLC v. County of Kern provides important clarity on the use of agricultural conservation easements (ACEs) for mitigating the conversion of agricultural land...more
In Center for Biological Diversity v. County of San Benito (2024) 104 Cal.App.5th 22, the Court of Appeal held that the statute of limitations for two CEQA challenges did not begin to run until the Board of Supervisors had...more