Environmental Review and CEQA Compliance

The California Environmental Quality Act of 1970 (CEQA, as amended, Public Resources Code Section 21000 et seq.) applies to discretionary projects to be carried out or approved by public agencies. A basic purpose of CEQA is to inform governmental decision-makers and the public about potential, significant environmental effects of the proposed activities. Since the project is subject to CEQA and the Commission must issue a discretionary decision in order for the project to proceed (i.e., the Commission must approve the project pursuant to Section 1202 of the Public Utilities Code), the Commission must consider the environmental consequences of the project by acting 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.¹ Here, the City is the lead agency for this project and the Commission is a responsible agency. As a responsible agency under CEQA, the Commission must consider the lead agency's environmental documents and findings before acting on or approving this project.²

The City conducted an Initial Study and found that the Bikeway project could have a potentially significant environmental effect on Land Use/Biological Resources and Historical Resources. Therefore, the City prepared a Mitigated Negative Declaration (MND) dated January 17, 2006.

Safety, transportation and circulation, and noise, as they relate to the two grade-separated bike path rail crossings, are within the scope of the Commission's permitting process. The City, in the MND, identified no environmental impacts among those items within the scope of the Commission's permitting process. Since the identified environmental impacts and the adopted mitigations do not pertain to the scope of the Commission's permitting process, they are not relevant to the specific matters before the commission.

The Commission reviewed and considered the MND and finds it adequate for our decision-making purposes.

¹ CEQA Guidelines (Title 14 of the California Code of Regulations), Section 15051(b).

² CEQA Guidelines, Sections 15050(b) and 15096.