Attachment D: Environmental Review Process
Improvements Work Plan
Task Description Target
Completion
Completed
Kick-off meetings and regular
check-in meetings with
applicants and consultants
Hold kick-off meetings to establish
expectations and preliminary timeline.
Regular meetings at key milestones to
improve coordination and
communication between City,
consultant, and applicant (Audit 22-02
Recommendation # 2).
2022
Create a standard project
schedule tracker tool
Schedule tracker tool created in Excel
for most types of CEQA documents
using City’s target review times (Audit
22-02 Recommendation # 6.a.).
2023
Standard Operating
Procedures
Standard Operating Procedures for
CEQA review completed and uploaded
into PBCE P2 Hub.
2023
Requirement that private
applicants hire an
environmental consultant
from the City List of Approved
Environmental Consultants
Policy approved requiring private
applicants to hire an environmental
consultant from the City List of Approved
Environmental Consultants after 1/1/23
(Audit 22-02 Recommendation # 8.b.).
2023
Performance standards and
data tracking
Performance standards for
administrative draft review developed for
PBCE Customer Service Charter (Audit
22-02 Recommendation # 3).
2023
Internal staff training and
training for other City
departments
Trainings on the City’s CEQA and NEPA
review process for PBCE staff and other
City Departments (Audit 22-02
Recommendation 1.a.).
2022-2024
(ongoing)
Policy on roles and
responsibilities of City staff in
the environmental review
process.
Policy on roles and responsibilities of
City staff in the environmental review
process, including for administrative
draft reviews, approved and published
to the PBCE P2 Hub (Audit 22-02
Recommendation # 2.c.)
2023
Task Description Target
Completion
Publish updated City List of
Approved Environmental
Consultants
List of vetted environmental consultants
for CEQA and NEPA for private
development applicants. Use of a
consultant on this list is required as of
1/1/23 (Audit 22-02 Recommendation #
8.b.).
February 2025
FY 24 – 25 In Progress
Policy on roles and
expectations for
environmental consultants
Formal policy outlining roles and
expectations for environmental
consultants, including expectations for
quality of deliverables, communication,
timeliness of submittals (Audit 22-02
Recommendation # 8.a.).
June 2025
Environmental Review
Guidelines (including
thresholds of significance)
Guidelines for preparation of CEQA and
NEPA documents, including scope of
analysis expected for each resource
area and standard language for
common mitigation measures and
conditions of approval. Also includes
clarification of the City’s CEQA
thresholds of significance (Audit 22-02
Recommendations # 6.b. and 9).
June 2025
Standard templates for CEQA
and NEPA documents
Standard templates for typical CEQA
and NEPA documents to ensure
consistent formatting and include
standard language for required sections,
such as environmental and regulatory
setting (Audit 22-02 Recommendation #
6.b.).
June 2025
FY 25 - 26
Five Wounds Urban Village
Plan and Program Level EIR
Program Level EIR for the Five Wounds
Urban Village. Will allow future
development projects to utilize CEQA
streamlining either through an
Addendum (like the Downtown Strategy
2040 EIR) or through the Community
Plan Exemption Process (CEQA
Guidelines Section 15183).
Task Description Target
Completion
Expand the number of
projects where entitlement
review and environmental
review are handled by one
Project Manager.
To improve coordination and efficiency
of reviews, this effort would expand the
types of projects where the entitlement
review and environmental review are
handled by the same Project Manager
(currently more complex environmental
reviews are handled by an
Environmental Project Manager
separate from the entitlements reviewed
by the Planning Project Manager)(Audit
22-02 Recommendation # 1.b.).
December 2025
Downtown Ministerial
Ordinance
Expands the ministerial process
developed for the City Streamlined
Review Process for Infill Housing
Projects adopted in December 2024 to
include eligible Downtown sites.
TBD
Updated AMANDA
Guidelines to improve time
tracking and data entry
In conjunction with updates to the
AMANDA 7 permit tracking system, staff
will update guidelines for time tracking
and data entry. This will improve cost
recovery while improving data tracking
for performance measures, such as the
Customer Service Charter (Audit 22-02
Recommendations # 4 and10.a.).
June 2026
Review of cost recovery
calculation for environmental
review fees.
Using AMANDA data, evaluate the
environmental review team’s costrecovery model. This will determine improvements needed to ensure
continued funding for the environmental
review team and stable service delivery
(Audit 22-02 Recommendation # 10.b.).
June 2026
Task Description Target
Completion
FY 26-27 and Beyond
Saratoga Urban Village Plan
and Program Level EIR
Program Level EIR for the Saratoga
Urban Village Plan. Will allow future
development projects to utilize CEQA
streamlining either through an
Addendum (like the Downtown Strategy
2040 EIR) or through the Community
Plan Exemption Process (CEQA
Guidelines Section 15183).
TBD
Task Description Target
Completion
General Plan Four-Year
Review and supporting
Program Level EIR
Program Level EIR will update the
Envision San Jose 2040 EIR to include
standard measures that will allow
projects that conform with the General
Plan to pursue a Community Plan
Exemption Process (CEQA Guidelines
Section 15183). The Four-Year Review
will also be an opportunity to re-examine
and update established thresholds of
significance (such as those for
transportation and construction noise).
TBD