Mitigated Negative DeclarationNo Significant Environmental ImpactWhen a project is proposed, under State and local law, CEQA (the California Environmental Quality Act) is put into effect and the County becomes what is defined as the Lead Agency. The Lead Agency (in our case, Calaveras County Board of Supervisors) makes a decision as to whether or not the project will have a significant environmental impact. If so, the developer is required to perform an expensive Environmental Impact Report(EIR).Mitigated Negative DeclarationOften, instead of this, the Lead Agency can approve a project under a Mitigated Negative Declaration (Mitigated Neg Dec). A Mitigated Neg Dec is associated with a project that has certain "agreed upon" built-in mitigation measures. This allows the project to be considered as having less than significant environmental impact and thus no EIR is required. This is faster and less expensive than producing an EIR.Example of a Mitigation RequirementFor example, for a particular project, it could be determined that too many oak trees would be removed. In a Mitigated Neg Dec, the Lead Agency could require that the developer plant new trees that are not in the way of his construction, to replace those that have been removed due to the development. In this case, with the tree planting, the Lead Agency determines that there would be no significant environmental impact; thus, no EIR would be required. In this example, planting the new trees is a mitigation requirement.
Who Enforces the Mitigated Neg Dec?If a Lead Agency adopts a Negative Declaration which includes a provision to mitigate a significant environmental impact, then the Lead agency must also adopt a program to ensure that the provisions are complied with.For example, if the provision required that the developer obtain permits from another government agency (suppose the state required permits to remove and replant oak trees in the example above), then the Lead Agency would be required by law to ensure that the permits were obtained. Click on the link below for more information. Negative Declaration ProcessCEQA Title 14, Article 6,
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