California Code of Regulations
Title 14 - Natural Resources
Division 6 - Resources Agency
Chapter 3 - Guidelines for Implementation of the California Environmental Quality Act
Article 18 - Statutory Exemptions
Section 15269 - Emergency Projects
Current through Register 2024 Notice Reg. No. 38, September 20, 2024
The following emergency projects are exempt from the requirements of CEQA.
(a) Projects to maintain, repair, restore, demolish, or replace property or facilities damaged or destroyed as a result of a disaster in a disaster stricken area in which a state of emergency has been proclaimed by the Governor pursuant to the California Emergency Services Act, commencing with Section 8550 of the Government Code. This includes projects that will remove, destroy, or significantly alter an historical resource when that resource represents an imminent threat to the public of bodily harm or of damage to adjacent property or when the project has received a determination by the State Office of Historic Preservation pursuant to Section 5028(b) of Public Resources Code.
(b) Emergency repairs to publicly or privately owned service facilities necessary to maintain service essential to the public health, safety or welfare. Emergency repairs include those that require a reasonable amount of planning to address an anticipated emergency.
(c) Specific actions necessary to prevent or mitigate an emergency. This does not include long-term projects undertaken for the purpose of preventing or mitigating a situation that has a low probability of occurrence in the short-term, but this exclusion does not apply (i) if the anticipated period of time to conduct an environmental review of such a long-term project would create a risk to public health, safety or welfare, or (ii) if activities (such as fire or catastrophic risk mitigation or modifications to improve facility integrity) are proposed for existing facilities in response to an emergency at a similar existing facility.
(d) Projects undertaken, carried out, or approved by a public agency to maintain, repair, or restore an existing highway damaged by fire, flood, storm, earthquake, land subsidence, gradual earth movement, or landslide, provided that the project is within the existing right of way of that highway and is initiated within one year of the damage occurring. This exemption does not apply to highways designated as official state scenic highways, nor any project undertaken, carried out, or approved by a public agency to expand or widen a highway damaged by fire, flood, storm, earthquake, land subsidence, gradual earth movement, or landslide.
(e) Seismic work on highways and bridges pursuant to Section 180.2 of the Streets and Highways Code, Section 180 et seq.
1. Amendment of section and NOTE filed 10-26-98; operative 10-26-98 pursuant to Public Resources Code section 21087 (Register 98, No. 44).
2. Change without regulatory effect amending NOTE filed 10-6-2005 pursuant to section 100, title 1, California Code of Regulations (Register 2005, No. 40).
3. Amendment of subsections (b)-(c) and amendment of NOTE filed 12-28-2018; operative 12-28-2018 pursuant to Government Code section 11343.4(b)(3) (Register 2018, No. 52).
Note: Authority cited: Section 21083, Public Resources Code. Reference: Sections 21080(b)(2), 21080(b)(3), 21080(b)(4), 21080.33 and 21172, Public Resources Code; CalBeach Advocates v. City of Solana Beach (2002) 103 Cal. App. 4th 529; Castaic Lake Water Agency v. City of Santa Clarita (1995) 41 Cal.App.4th 1257; and Western Municipal Water District of Riverside County v. Superior Court of San Bernardino County (1987) 187 Cal.App.3d 1104.
