CEQA & environmental
Mitigation measure
An enforceable condition that avoids, minimizes, or compensates for a significant environmental impact — the currency of MNDs and EIR findings.
Definition
A mitigation measure is a commitment that avoids, minimizes, rectifies, reduces, or compensates for a significant environmental impact — acoustic construction standards, pre-construction nesting surveys, habitat credits, in-lieu program payments. Under the CEQA statute measures must be fully enforceable through conditions or agreements, and the CEQA Guidelines require a nexus and rough proportionality to the impact; mitigation may not be deferred to later study without committed performance standards.
Why it matters in an underwrite
Mitigation is a permanent cost line, not a study artifact: per-unit acoustic upgrades, off-site improvements, monitoring staff, habitat credits priced per acre. Underwrite adopted measures the way you underwrite impact fees, because they bind through the mitigation monitoring program for the life of the entitlement. And watch the drafting — "applicant shall study and address" deferred-mitigation language is a classic litigation loss; numeric performance standards survive.
Sources & related guides
See also
See the term in the law itself
Read the controlling text in the Code Library, or ask the AI how it applies to your project.
Last reviewed 2026-07-29. General information, not legal advice.