Planning and zoning: community plans: review under the California Environmental Quality Act.

Senator Richardson's legislation reestablishes protections for development projects during California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) litigation over community plan updates, creating a framework that applies to plans adopted after January 1, 2025. The measure prevents courts from invalidating development project approvals based on CEQA challenges to community plan updates if the project was approved or deemed complete before any court-ordered stay of the plan.

The bill defines qualifying community plans through specific criteria, including requirements that plans must contain at least two transit priority areas, cover territory within an urbanized area, and operate within jurisdictions that maintain current housing elements addressing regional needs. Local jurisdictions must also have adopted mobility elements since 2015 and established vehicle miles traveled thresholds for plan areas. These provisions apply only to plans that have not been updated in over 10 years.

While maintaining CEQA compliance requirements for individual development projects, the measure establishes boundaries around judicial review of community plan updates through January 1, 2036. The bill's findings note that uncertainty during CEQA litigation over community plan updates can delay development across entire plan areas. Citing California's housing needs, the legislation declares these provisions a matter of statewide concern, extending them to all cities, including charter cities, and takes effect immediately as an urgency statute.