Greg Wilcox: Valley group ready for CEQA reform fight

It's a battle of acronyms: The Valley's VICA vs. the state's CEQA.

It may end up being quite a tussle between the Valley Industry and Commerce Association and the California Environmental Quality Act, which sets strict guidelines for mitigating the environmental impacts of development and other projects.

But VICA President Stuart Waldman sensed a change in the political wind earlier this year when he and some members traveled to Sacramento for a meeting with Gov. Jerry Brown's staff.

"One of the first things they said was that the governor was serious about CEQA reform and they wanted ideas," Waldman said. "We didn't really think that we would actually have the opportunity for real CEQA reform because it is kind of like the Holy Grail."

The group came up with a list of about 20 ideas, then narrowed it to eight, which were released last week.

"Since its passage, the business community has been working for reasonable CEQA reform," VICA Chairman Daymond Rice said in a statement. "The eight ideas VICA has introduced will take significant steps to keep CEQA from hurting the state's economic recovery."

The top recommendation is to simplify the approval process for projects that are "deemed necessary for economic revival and sustained economic health."

VICA also

recommends granting expedited processing to projects designed to comply with existing environmental regulations and ensuring that once a project is approved that it is subject only to the laws in effect at that time.

Other suggestions address to how handle challenges made to a project's environmental impact statement.

"We're asking for what we feel are extremely reasonable changes," Waldman said.

The Governor's Office did not respond to request for comment.

Michael Endicott, an advocate for Sierra Club California, said that the group is OK with tweaking the environmental act but is leery of what the business community calls reforms.

"Most of the things we've seen so far that have floated up ... have not really been reforms but removal of environmental protections," Endicott said. "They are just looking to not have to comply with environmental laws."

The business and environmental communities have been waging annual skirmishes since the law was passed in 1970.

And one problem with CEQA is that it's dense - the 2011 version runs 399 pages.

Endicott said that heft reflects changes made to the law over the years.

But it also has spawned some pretty dense documents, too. Waldman says the environmental impact report for Universal Studios' expansion ran 49,000 pages.

"There are people who spent their entire careers working on that document," he said.

Maybe one CEQA reform should address brevity.

Source: http://www.dailynews.com/news/ci_18399896?source=rss

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