Real Estate Update: State Releases Draft Guidelines for Streamlined Environmental Review of Infill Development Projects

On January 25, 2012, the Governor’s Office of Planning and Research (OPR) released draft CEQA Guidelines to implement Senate Bill (SB) 226, which the Governor signed last October. SB 226 creates a streamlining mechanism under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) for qualified infill development projects. Whether SB 226 is a useful tool will depend in large part on the criteria in these performance standards and whether they ultimately bring sufficient certainty and efficiency to the CEQA process.