SB 312 (Weiner) (Chapter 284, Statutes of 2024)

SB 312 would amend PRC Section 21080.58 to expand the current law requiring a university housing development project carried out by the University of California, in order to be exempt from CEQA under this law, to be consistent with the most recent long-range development plan EIR certified on or after January 1, 2018, to January 2032. The bill would require a university housing development project carried out by the University of California, in order to be exempt from CEQA, to be consistent with the land use designation in the most recent long-range development plan that has an EIR prepared for that plan, or an EIR prepared for any subsequent amendment to that plan relating to housing, that was certified not more than 25 years before the approval of the project. The number of beds would be required not to exceed the number analyzed in the EIR for the long-range development plan.

The bill would prohibit a public university that has exempted a university housing development project from being eligible to exempt a subsequent university housing project until the public university has obtained Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Platinum certification for each building within the prior exempted university housing project. The bill would establish additional qualifying criteria for projects to include tenant percentages and maximum vehicle miles traveled requirements.