California Code of Regulations
Title 14 - Natural Resources
Division 6 - Resources Agency
Chapter 3 - Guidelines for Implementation of the California Environmental Quality Act
Article 6 - Negative Declaration Process
Section 15073 - Public Review of a Proposed Negative Declaration or Mitigated Negative Declaration

(a) The lead agency shall provide a public review period pursuant to Section 15105 of not less than 20 days. When a proposed negative declaration or mitigated negative declaration and initial study are submitted to the State Clearinghouse for review by state agencies, the public review period shall not be less than 30 days, unless a shorter period is approved by the State Clearinghouse under Section 15105(d).

(b) When a proposed negative declaration or mitigated negative declaration and initial study have been submitted to the State Clearinghouse for review by state agencies, the public review period shall be at least as long as the review period established by the State Clearinghouse. The public review period and the state agency review period may, but are not required to, begin and end at the same time. Day one of the state review period shall be the date that the State Clearinghouse distributes the document to state agencies.

(c) A copy of the proposed negative declaration or mitigated negative declaration and the initial study shall be attached to the notice of intent to adopt the proposed declaration that is sent to every responsible agency and trustee agency concerned with the project and every other public agency with jurisdiction by law over resources affected by the project.

(d) Where one or more state agencies will be a responsible agency or a trustee agency or will exercise jurisdiction by law over natural resources affected by the project, or where the project is of statewide, regional, or areawide environmental significance, the lead agency shall send copies of the proposed negative declaration or mitigated negative declaration to the State Clearinghouse for distribution to the state agencies.

(e) The lead agency shall notify in writing any public agency which comments on a proposed negative declaration or mitigated negative declaration of any public hearing to be held for the project for which the document was prepared. A notice provided to a public agency pursuant to Section 15072 satisfies this requirement.