Upcoming Webinar on CEQA Resources: Site Check & Judicial Streamlining

Please join the Governor's Office of Land Use and Climate Innovation (LCI) for a webinar on Monday, Nov. 4, 2024, at 3 p.m. for an overview of the Site Check and Judicial Streamlining processes, two resources for streamlining infill housing and other essential infrastructure projects under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA).

As California faces impacts from the affordable housing shortage and climate crises, we must speed-up housing and climate infrastructure projects. Site Check and Judicial Streamlining are key resources for housing developers, CEQA consultants, analysts, agencies and others to responsibly accelerate critical infrastructure projects such as infill housing.

Developed in coordination with the Department of Housing and Community Development, Site Check is a web tool poised to advance California's goal to create 2.5 million new homes by 2030. Site Check will help developers and public agencies find parcels of land where housing projects may qualify for streamlining under CEQA. Developers and public agencies can turn to Site Check as a first step in considering how CEQA may apply to a housing project. Learn more about, and give feedback on, Site Check on the CEQA and Housing webpage and by attending the Nov. 4 webinar. LCI staff will use the feedback given during the webinar to help develop the next round of updates to the tool.

The Judicial Streamlining program accelerates critical infrastructure projects across California while ensuring thorough environmental review and welcoming community input. Projects that the Governor certifies for judicial streamlining benefit from expedited judicial review of any lawsuits challenging the project under CEQA, reducing lawsuit-related delays from 3-5 years to ~270 days. The Judicial Streamlining program is part of Governor Newsom's work to help California build and retrofit infrastructure that advances the state's ambitious climate goals by leveraging the unprecedented $180 billion in federal infrastructure funds forecast to become available to California throughout the next 10 years. Find the Judicial Streamlining program's guidelines, application instructions, certified projects, and legislative history on the Judicial Streamlining webpage, and sign up for the Nov. 4 webinar to learn more and ask questions. During the webinar, staff will walk through the guidelines and discuss the eight project types eligible for judicial streamlining. Attend the webinar to find out if your project might qualify.

Register for the CEQA Resources Webinar

While we hope you'll join us live to ask questions, the webinar will also be recorded and posted online for those who are unable to attend.

The Governor's Office of Land Use and Climate Innovation is hosting this webinar as part of our response to Governor Newsom's Executive Order N-2-24 to accelerate infill development projects. The Order directs state agencies, including LCI, to collaboratively and comprehensively address the need to develop more housing, including by building more tools to help developers and others identify opportunities to transform vacant sites into housing for Californians.