By Michael Zischke, Andrew Sabey, and David Levy

The California Supreme Court has unanimously ruled that environmental impact review is required under the California Environmental Quality Act when a public agency proposes a ballot measure and places it on the ballot. Friends of Sierra Madre v. City of Sierra Madre, No. S085088 (March 29, 2001). Prior to this decision, the courts of appeal had generally ruled that ballot measures submitted to the voters for approval were exempt from CEQA review, whether they were placed on the ballot by citizen petition or submitted to the voters by a city council or board of supervisors. The City of Sierra Madre relied on those decisions in deciding to submit to the voters a proposal to take 29 properties off of the local historic property list.

Under the Supreme Court's decision, such "board-sponsored" ballot measures are subject to the California Environmental Quality Act. In most instances, that will mean that the agency must complete some level of environmental impact review before placing the measure on the ballot. Depending on whether the proposed ballot measure would result in significant environmental impacts, that impact review document would be either an environmental impact report (EIR), a negative declaration, or a mitigated negative declaration.

This new ruling is significant because in recent years over half of the land use ballot measures considered by local voters have been placed on the ballot by the city council or board of supervisors without a local petition drive. These "board-sponsored" measures have included both planning approvals for particular projects as well as a number of urban limit lines and growth control measures. The legal basis for the court's decision is the wording of the CEQA Guideline which states that CEQA does not apply to the "submission of a measure to the voters." 14 Code Cal. Regs. 15378(b)(3). That Guideline includes a reference to the Stein v. City of Santa Monica court of appeal decision, which held that CEQA does not apply when a ballot measure is presented to a city council by citizen petition and the city places the measure on the ballot. 110 Cal. App. 3d 458 (1980). The Supreme Court held that the Guideline was intended to exempt from CEQA review only those measures that qualify for the ballot by citizen petition.