Development Services Review. Final Report. Zucker July 2016

11. Once the Initial Study (IS) funds are received, the CEQA Environmental Consultant begins the IS work, which can take 2-6 months depending on the issues (e.g., special studies, field work, etc.). A Negative Declaration, Mitigated Negative Declaration or Environmental Impact Report (EIR’S) is prepared. EIR’s can take a year or longer to complete. Once the CEQA documentation is completed the project is deemed complete. We have studied and worked for various California communities that use environmental consultants to complete all or part of the required environmental analyses and documentation pursuant to CEQA. For example, in some communities, staff is responsible for completing the Initial Study and where projects are found to have no significant environmental impact, staff completes the Negative Declaration documentation. Projects that are found to have no significant impact with mitigation, an Environmental Consultant is often engaged to further study various impacts and develop appropriate mitigations, resulting in a Mitigated Negative Declaration determination. Many of the communities we have worked or studied use environmental consultants to prepare Environmental Impact Reports and/or Statements, where significant environmental impacts would result from a project. We received negative feedback from some focus group members concerning the City’s use of environmental consultants to perform all environmental analysis and documentation (e.g., Initial Study and resultant determination and documentation) pursuant to CEQA (except under special circumstances) because it is more costly and time consuming. Staff indicated that the City utilizes environmental consultants to complete all required analysis and documentation under CEQA primarily due to training and workload constraints. 151. Recommendation: The City should consider requiring project planners to complete the Initial Study (IS) for all non-exempt CEQA project to determine whether significant impacts would result. 152. Recommendation: If the City requires project planners to complete Initial Studies for non-exempt CEQA projects, planners should be responsible for completing Negative Declaration documentation for projects found to have no significant impact. 153. Recommendation: If the City requires project planners to complete Initial Studies for non-exempt CEQA projects, Planners should be empowered to determine whether proposed Mitigated Negative Declaration determinations

Morgan Hill, California

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