Developers Still Want CEQA in the Parking Lot After School

It's been almost five months since the introduction of a bill meant to curb some of the negative side effects of California's enviro legislation on development, and the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce continues to bang the drum. We've covered the long-simmering resentment of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) in the developers club before -- project after project has been bulldozed virtually by CEQA lawsuits long before they've ever broken ground, and some developers apparently look at Hollywood as the hellmouth of CEQA lawsuits. In the Park La Brea News, the Chamber of Commerce says they've taken upon themselves the task of counting up all the downed developments and totaling the number of jobs delayed or lost: 6,000 in all, they say. The group, in concert with a state senator, has led the formulation of SB 735, a bill that's supposed to shorten the judicial-review timeline of CEQA cases from one year to nine months. It's not the only one: there are "more than 29" bills set to change the way CEQA works. This is going to be a long one, folks. -Andy J. Wang
· CEQA Lawsuits Delay Projects in Hollywood [Park La Brea]
· From Hollywood, Rumblings and Requests for CEQA Reform [Curbed LA]
· Budget Wars: Republicans Push Brown for CEQA Changes [Curbed LA]