WALNUT CREEK, CA-GlobeSt.com chats with Christopher Calfee ofcounsel in the environmental and natural resources practice groupof Best Best & Krieger LLP’s Walnut Creek and Sacramentooffices about planning for development certainty in a quicklychanging climate and about making the most out of recent changes inthe State CEQA Guidelines.

Dolce: Tell me a bit about the Global WarmingSolutions Act of 2006 and the Sustainable Communities and ClimateProtection Act of 2009, because I know the development landscapechanged as a result of those, and I know there is a new set ofclimate regulations were enacted this year aswell.

Calfee: The Global Warming SolutionsAct of 2006, commonly known as AB32, does not directly regulatereal estate development. Shortly after its passage, however, thedevelopment landscape quickly changed as new projects werechallenged in court for not incorporating climate changeconsiderations into the environmental review process. Projectproponents soon rushed to highlight the green credentials of theirprojects, but a lack of statewide standards and inconsistent localresponses to climate change policies injected unwelcome uncertaintyinto the development process. The Sustainable Communities andClimate Protection Act of 2008 (SB375) offers some relief byexempting certain types of mixed use projects that would beconsistent with a regional “Sustainable Communities Strategy” fromsome of the more onerous environmental review requirements. It willstill be several years though before such strategies are adopted insome of our most populous regions. Even then, the promisedexemptions may apply to only a narrow category of projects.