Environmental Review

Because the California Environmental Quality Act (" 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 Oakdale ("City") is the Lead Agency. The CPUC is a Responsible Agency for this proposed project. CEQA requires that the CPUC consider the environmental consequences of a project that is subject to its discretionary approval. In particular, the Commission must consider the environmental consequences of a project that is subject to its discretionary approval, and the Commission must consider the Lead Agency environmental documents and findings before acting upon or approving the project. (CEQA guidelines 15050(b)). The specific activities that must be conducted by a Responsible Agency are contained in CEQA guidelines Section 15096.

A brief summary of the City's environmental review of the Bridle Ridge project is as follows:

On January 21, 1999, the City filed a Notice of Determination ("NOD") in accordance with Section 21108 or 21152 of the Public Resources Code, approving the Bridle Ridge Specific Plan ("Plan"). The NOD approved and adopted the City's Mitigated Negative Declaration (MND) and Initial Study for the Bridle Ridge General Plan Amendments/Specific Plan (SCH#: 98102084) including the entire proposed 530-acre development within the City's southwest sphere of influence. The environmental documents found that with implementation of mitigation measures, the project will not have a significant effect on the environment. Accordingly, mitigation measures were made a condition of approval and a Mitigation and Monitoring Plan was adopted. The Plan identifies the timing of all mitigations, what entity is responsible for implementation, what entity has verification responsibility and what method of verification is to be employed. We have reviewed and considered the environmental documents and find that these documents are adequate for our decisionmaking purposes under CEQA. The City adopted mitigation measures including the requirements for: specific roadway and crossing measures related to Crane Road, F Street, Gregar Road and J Street; landscaping and grading for lots with certain grades; preservation of certain existing native trees and the planting of new native trees; preconstruction surveys to determine the presence of burrowing owls; traffic analysis and the interconnection of traffic signals; lighting systems around parking lots and park areas; and specified sound protection in home construction. We find that the City adopted reasonable and feasible mitigation measures to either eliminate or reduce the potential environmental impacts to less than significant levels. Accordingly, we adopt the City's requirements under the Mitigation and Monitoring Plan for purposes of our approval.