CEQA - California Environmental Quality Act
For the developers in CA - What is your experience with it and why is it such a big deal?
Context:
I used to do redevelopment so I never really had to deal with the process until now, at a new firm, my project is getting drawn out because of all the crap we have to do along with the appeal process.
I know a lot of developers hate it, but never understood why - I’m starting to feel the pain though. Is it the process, bureaucracy, or the actual guidelines that frustrates developers?
Any asshole can sue to stop your project....... let that sink in.... then ask yourself... does CA have less or more assholes on average in this world????
Passing along information for future monkeys eager to learn. Spoke with a few other CA Developers to get their take:
Even if you checked all the boxes and your experts and staff confirm there is no impact or provide solutions to mitigate impacts, it is still easy for anyone to sue, appeal, or drag out your project because of CEQA. And to the previous comment, there are a lot of assholes in CA who will do this to drag your project out just for the hell of it.
In order to satisfy the CEQA process for a significant development project, many developers are forced to process an Environmental Impact Report which basically responds to every individual assessment item and the project's potential impact on same. The EIR process along can take about a year and costs upwards of $1M between legal assistance in drafting the report and all of the related consultant fees.
The assessment items number in the dozens. Any individual assessment item can be used as the basis for a lawsuit against the project and railroad the entitlements. It's why developing in CA is so complicated. Not only do you have to figure out how to navigate the complexities of CEQA, you have to figure out how to manage the risks of (often) of a seven figure carry, with a multi year entitlement period that can get railroaded for all of these minute CEQA reasons, in addition to other NIMBY issues.
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