California Environmental Quality Act: exemptions: transit projects.

Senator Wiener, joined by coauthors Arreguín, Chen, Lee, and Ward, advances a measure that reshapes how transportation-related environmental reviews are approached by broadening exemptions for planning and infrastructure while threading in new planning, labor, and public-engagement requirements. The proposal foregrounds a shift toward more streamlined treatment of certain active transportation and transit planning activities, alongside extended exemptions for a wide range of transit capital projects, under a framework that also adds governance and accountability mechanisms.

Key changes include extending indefinitely the exemptions for active transportation plans, pedestrian plans, and bicycle transportation plans tied to restriping, parking, signaling, and related infrastructure, as well as for transit comprehensive operational analyses and certain route adjustments. The bill also extends exemptions through 2040 for a broad set of transportation projects, including microtransit, paratransit, shuttle services, ferries, bus rapid transit, and light rail infrastructure, and it adds exemptions for public projects to support zero-emission or near-zero-emission transit fleets and related charging, fueling, and maintenance facilities. It introduces explicit cost-based triggers: projects anticipated to exceed $100 million would must satisfy a programmatic-level review alongside a project business case and a racial equity analysis, with at least three pre-exemption public meetings and two annual post-award meetings, while projects over $50 million face specified public-notice and engagement requirements. The Legislature also pockets CPI-based adjustments beginning in 2026, updating the thresholds every two years, and acknowledges new housing-related considerations by defining affordable housing within the exemption framework and allowing housing developments that are nondiscretionary or exempt to qualify for exemptions when paired with transit projects.

Procedural and labor provisions emphasize upfront qualification of exemptions, with lead agencies responsible for determining applicability prior to CEQA review and for conducting enhanced public engagement. The bill requires three noticed public meetings in the project area before determining exemption for large-scale work, and at least two meetings during construction; notices would be disseminated through newspapers, onsite and offsite postings, and the agency’s website and social media. It also imposes labor requirements, mandating that exempt projects certify a skilled and trained workforce, unless a project labor agreement exists or other specific arrangements apply; contracts may require enforceable commitments to use a skilled and trained workforce or participate in apprenticeship programs. In addition, a displacement-analysis requirement applies to certain projects where at least half the work occurs in areas at risk of residential displacement and where peak transit headways are limited, with anti-displacement strategies to be identified. A central administrative role falls to the Office of Land Use and Climate Innovation, which would publish CPI-adjusted thresholds, set guidelines for business-case and racial-equity analyses (or delegate to metropolitan planning organizations), and oversee related implementation actions, including potential non-rulemaking interpretations.

The measure situates these changes within a broader policy and fiscal landscape, linking transit investments more explicitly with housing, displacement considerations, and labor standards, while creating a state-mandated local program that imposes new duties on local agencies. Localities would bear the fiscal responsibility for these added processes, disclosures, and analyses, with no state reimbursement attached. The framework also preserves severability and introduces a sunset for the extended exemptions in 2040, alongside targeted exemptions for certain transit services and technologies and carve-outs for transportation-network company operations in specific circumstances. Taken together, the bill establishes a structured path for public participation and analytic scrutiny of large exemptions while expanding the reach of planning and capital-transit projects that may proceed with reduced environmental-review duration under defined constraints.