Two weeks after it was left for dead, SB 731 – the bill to reform the California Environmental Quality Act – unanimously passed the Assembly Local Government Committee Wednesday. The bill was amended last week to ease parking requirements on infill development but it was unclear whether that would be enough to satisfy the Assembly.
However, Wednesday's 5-0 vote suggested that the bill is likely to become law this year despite business opposition. After it passed the Senate unanimously in May, SB 731 ran into problems when a business group – the CEQA Working Group – switched from support to opposition and Assembly Speaker John Perez said more analysis was needed.
On Wednesday, Senate leader Darrell Steinberg – who is carrying the bill – had tough words for the CEQA Working Group. He was quoted in the Los Angeles Times as saying: "You want to move a mile, we will move a mile. You want to move one hundred miles in ways that may not be good, that's not going to happen with this bill."
Capital Public Radio quoted him with even blunter words: ""If there is any expectation – and I know there is a big expectation – that my bill will include the lengthy and ever-changing list that the CEQA coalition seems to want, you're gonna have to find another author, another year, another time, another way to do this."
