Environmental Review

Because CEQA applies to discretionary projects to be carried out or approved by public agencies and because the Commission must act on the Section 851 application and issue a discretionary decision without which the project cannot proceed, the Commission must act as either a Lead or Responsible Agency under CEQA. The Lead Agency is the public agency with the greatest responsibility for supervising or approving the project as a whole (CEQA guidelines Section 15051(b)).

In this case, the City of Carson (City) is the Lead Agency. The City's environmental review process and associated documents are functionally equivalent to the traditional CEQA preparation of an Environmental Impact Report. The Commission is a Responsible Agency for this proposed project. CEQA requires that the Commission consider the environmental consequences of a project that is subject to its discretionary approval. In particular, the Commission must consider the Lead Agency environmental documents and findings before acting upon or approving the project. (CEQA Guidelines Section 15050(b).) The specific activities that must be conducted by a Responsible Agency are contained in CEQA Guidelines Section 15096.

After conducting an initial study, the City adopted a mitigated negative declaration for the proposed General Mills project and issued a conditional use permit for it. SCE included the detailed record of the City's action in the Application. We adopt the City's finding that the project will have no significant effect on the environment.