Environmental Review

Because 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 Hawthorne 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 California Public Utilities Commission (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 Lead Agency's 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.

We have reviewed the City's environmental documents and find them to be adequate for our decision-making purposes. On September 14, 1999, the City filed a Notice of Determination (NOD) with the Los Angeles County Clerk in compliance with Public Resources Code Sections 21108 or 21152. The NOD indicates that the City approved the proposed project on September 13, 1999, (Community Redevelopment Agency Resolution No. 343) finding that with the mitigation measures adopted as a condition of approval, the project will not have a significant effect on the environment.

The City's final Environmental Impact Report (EIR) identified potentially significant environmental impacts related to water, air quality, biology, and hazards. A Mitigation Monitoring Program was adopted pursuant to the EIR and Community Redevelopment Agency Resolution No. 343, to ensure implementation of mitigation measures related to each impact area. We find that the City adopted reasonable mitigations to reduce the potential impacts to less than significant levels and we similarly require implementation of the adopted mitigations as part of our approval.