Office of the Mayor
City of Santa Rosa
100 Santa Rosa Avenue, Room 10
Santa Rosa, CA 95404
August 30, 2022
The Honorable Gavin Newsom
Governor, State of California
1021 O Street, Room 6620
Sacramento, CA 95814
RE: SB 922 (Wiener) CEQA, Transportation Projects -- SUPPORT
Dear Governor Newsom:
On behalf of the City of Santa Rosa, I am writing to support SB 922 (Wiener). This bill would extend the sunset of SB 288 and expand certain exemptions under SB 288 projects. In 2020, you signed SB 288 into law. Specifically, SB 922 allows for certain transportation-related projects to be exempt under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA).
SB 922 allows for more sustainable transportation projects to be completed in a more expeditious manner. The bill will extend out the sunset of SB 288 until 2030, thus giving additional time for these important projects to be completed.
CEQA is an important bedrock of planning and land-use policies and is designed to protect the environment from adverse impacts tied to development projects. However, CEQA unfortunately can be a tool to slow down or stop critical infrastructure projects from occurring. This bill only applies to specific projects for public transportation, bicycle and pedestrian projects. The state notes, so far, only 22 projects have filed notice of exemptions under SB 288.
The City of Santa Rosa is committed to supporting legislation to ensure our public infrastructure projects are completed in an efficient manner, especially given the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, which is providing more resources to California.
For these reasons, the City of Santa Rosa supports SB 922 and requests your signature. Should you have any questions please contact our legislative advocate, Sharon Gonsalves, with the Renne Public Policy Group, at (916) 974-9270.
Sincerely,
Chris Rogers, Mayor