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Podcast - Roundtable Discussion: The California Environmental Quality Act

24 May 2006 - 8:00am

Roundtable Discussion: The California Environmental Quality Act

This podcast includes highlights of the roundtable discussion recorded on May 17, 2006 in Los Angeles. The complete 80-minute recording of this roundtable is also available for purchase.

Participants

Sean Hecht Sean Hecht
Executive Director of the UCLA School of Law Environmental Law Center 		Dan Silver Dr. Dan Silver
Executive Director of the Endangered Habitats League
Andy Henderson Andy Henderson
Vice President and General Counsel of the Building Industry Association of Southern California 		Chris Joseph Chris Joseph
President and Principal of environmental consulting firm Christopher A. Joseph & Associates
David Gest David Gest
Planetizen Managing Editor, discussion moderator


Areas of Discussion

  • How CEQA sometimes acts as a substitute for urban planning as a whole in California, when its scope is primarily environmental
  • The need for a more robust, outcome-driven, state planning law, and how it would relate to CEQA
  • The political feasibility of such a law
  • Whether CEQA aligns with urban planning philosophies like smart growth
  • How CEQA attempts to balance the interests of environmentalists and developers
  • How CEQA impacts the state's problem with affordable housing
  • CEQA in a national environmental law context
  • Problems with CEQA related to development delays and costs; the threat of lawsuits
  • The mechanics of CEQA: how Environmental Impact Reports (EIRs), Mitigated Negative Declarations (MNDs), and Tiering are used to regulate environmental quality in the state at a local level, on a project-by-project basis
  • What life would be like without CEQA

Listen to the Podcast:

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"To ignore this space is shortsighted." -- Jennifer Wolch, Director of the USC Center for Sustainable Cities
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