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It’s not so much the planning process it’s literally that small enough developments are exempt from CEQA as of 2018 until 2023. So as long as you’re building be

• pkdpic 4y ago
  Yeah and I believe they lifted zoning restrictions before covid as long as something like 20% of the units are low income? Somebody might check me on that.
• epistasis 4y ago
  And often it's not even as much an actual lawsuit, but the mere threat of one. The lawsuit doesn't have to be successful or based in environmental reality to stop projects, it merely has to delay construction long enough to force the builder to go get a different loan, pay for the frivolous legal defense, and in the meantime labor costs have risen resulting in having to redo all the planning work around the budget, pro forma, etc. CEQA lawsuit threats would disappear if they were resolved in a timely manner, say 30-60 days. Instead, a multi-year delay will kill projects.
  • TimPC 4y ago
    Yes. CEQA lawsuits are generally inconclusive initially and the first step of the lawsuit is that the builder has to conduct more expensive environmental studies. The studies may result in easy to implement solutions or small environmental impact but there is no liability on the potentially anonymous lawsuit bringer so even if the builder eventually wins they are out the entire costs of the court fight the entire costs of doing the additional assessments and the entire costs of delaying the project.