CEQA from All Angles

The California Environmental Quality Act is not only the primary tool for local historic preservation advocates, but it can also be used to shape a wide range of other local and regional planning decisions. Most large projects and many smaller projects involving historic resources require environmental review. CEQA identifies the process and provides for public comment on the destiny of a community’s local environment. This workshop will provide advocates and professionals alike with a basic understanding of the CEQA process, including pitfalls and opportunities. Explore legal issues and discuss actions that have successfully saved resources. Look at best practices and explore new, creative measures to mitigate impacts to historic sites.  Topics will include examples of mutual collaboration between developers and advocates; recent, game-changing CEQA case law, including Berkeley Hillside Preservation v. City of Berkeley; and tools other than CEQA that can be used to shape your community. You Will Examine…

• How factors such as traffic, visual impact, water use, and land use can be used to argue in favor of protecting historic resources
• How the Courts and Case Law Have Interpreted CEQA
• CEQA Hypothetical Situations Discussion

Documents and Downloads

• Program and Schedule
• Speaker Bios

Handouts

• 1.CEQA and its Role in Historic Preservation
• Turner Presentation - Advocates Guide to CEQA
• Sally Zarnowitz - CEQA from the Lead Agency
• Susan Brandt-Hawley - CEQA from the Legal Perspective
• Stephen Shchafer - Mitigation
• 2.MitigationDocumentation-Handout
• 3.CEQA Process FlowChart

Learning Objectives

1. Identify the key strategies and processes used by local advocates to protect resources under CEQA
2. Lay out a typical CEQA timeline, from the initial study to Draft EIR, final EIR, mitigation, and mitigation monitoring
3. Use recent CEQA case law to determine whether a project should include an EIR or has been improperly exempted
4. Craft meaningful mitigation measures that provide lasting public benefit and maintain resources impacted by a project

Speakers

• Darcy Kremin, Michael Baker International
• Susan Brandt-Hawley, Esq., Brandt-Hawley Law Group
• Brian Turner, Esq., ‎Senior Field Officer/Attorney, National Trust for Historic Preservation
• Stephen Schafer, HABS/HAER/HALS Photographer

Continuing Education

• AIA
• Design and Design Services
• Insights
• Legal
• Practice
• Project Management
• Project Types
• AICP
• Citizen Participation
• Demographics
• Environment
• History
• Housing
• Law
• Neighborhoods
• Property
• Streets
• Transportation
• Urban Design
• Zoning

Posted in: Advocacy, California Environmental Quality Act, Workshops