CEQA GUIDELINES
California Code of Regulations, Title 14, Division 6, Chapter 3,

Article 8. Time Limits. (Sections 15100-15112)

-Section 15100. General.
-Section 15101. Review of Application for Completeness.
-Section 15102. Initial Study.
-Section 15103. Response to Notice of Preparation.
-Section 15104. Convening of Meetings.
-Section 15105. Public Review Period for a Draft EIR of a Proposed Negative Declaration or Mitigated Negative Declaration.
-Section 15107. Completion of Negative Declaration for Certain Private Projects.
-Section 15108. Completion and Certification of EIR.
-Section 15109. Suspension of Time Periods.
-Section 15110. Projects with Federal Involvement.
-Section 15111. Projects with Short Time Periods for Approval.
-Section 15112. Statutes of Limitations.

Section 15100. General.
(a) Public agencies shall adopt time limits to govern their implementation of CEQA consistent with this article.

(b) Public agencies should carry out their responsibilities for preparing and reviewing EIRs within a reasonable period of time. The requirement for the preparation of an EIR should not cause undue delays in the processing of applications for permits or other entitlements to use.
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Section 15101. Review of Application for Completeness.
A lead agency or responsible agency shall determine whether an application for a permit or other entitlement for use is complete within 30 days from the receipt of the application except as provided in Section 15111. If no written determination of the completeness of the application is made within that period, the application will be deemed complete on the 30th day.
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Section 15102. Initial Study.
The lead agency shall determine within 30 days after accepting an application as complete whether it intends to prepare an EIR or a negative declaration or use a previously prepared EIR or negative declaration except as provided in Section 15111. The 30 day period may be extended 15 days upon the consent of the lead agency and the project applicant.
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Section 15103. Response to Notice of Preparation.
Responsible and Trustee Agencies, and the Office of Planning and Research shall provide a response to a Notice of Preparation to the Lead Agency within 30 days after receipt of the notice. If they fail to reply within the 30 days with either a response or a well justified request for additional time, the lead agency may assume that none of those entitles have a response to make and may ignore a late response.
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Section 15104. Convening of Meetings.
The lead agency shall convene a meeting with agency representatives to discuss the scope and content of the environmental information a responsible agency will need in the EIR as soon as possible but no later than 30 days after receiving a request for the meeting. The meeting may be requested by the lead agency, a responsible agency, a trustee agency, the Office of Planning and Research, or by the project applicant.
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Section 15105. Public Review Period for a Draft EIR of a Proposed Negative
Declaration or Mitigated Negative Declaration.
(a) The public review period for a draft EIR shall not be less than 30 days nor should it be longer than 60 days except in unusual circumstances. When a draft EIR is submitted to the State Clearinghouse for review by state agencies, the public review period shall not be less than 45 days, unless a shorter period, not less than 30 days, is approved by the State Clearinghouse.

(b) The public review period for a proposed negative declaration or mitigated negative declaration shall be not less than 20 days. When a proposed negative declaration or mitigated negative declaration is 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, not less than 20 days, is approved by the State Clearinghouse.

(c) If a draft EIR or proposed negative declaration or mitigated negative declaration has 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.

(d) A shortened Clearinghouse review period may be granted in accordance with the provisions of Appendix K and the following principles:

(1) A shortened review shall not be granted for any proposed project of statewide, areawide, or regional environmental significance.

(2) Requests for shortened review periods shall be submitted to the Clearinghouse in writing by the decision-making body of the lead agency, or a representative authorized by ordinance, resolution, or delegation of the decision-making body.

(3) The lead agency has contacted responsible and trustee agencies and they have agreed to the shortened review period.

(e) The State Clearinghouse shall distribute a draft EIR or proposed negative declaration or mitigated negative declaration within three working days after the date of receipt if the submittal is determined by the State Clearinghouse to be complete.
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Section 15107. Completion of Negative Declaration for Certain Private Projects.
With private projects involving the issuance of a lease, permit, license, certificate, or other entitlement for use by one or more public agencies, the negative declaration must be completed and approved within 180 days from the date when the lead agency accepted the application as complete.
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Section 15108. Completion and Certification of EIR.
With a private project, the lead agency shall complete and certify the final EIR as provided in Section 15090 within one year after the date when the lead agency accepted the application as complete. Lead agency procedures may provide that the one-year time limit may be extended once for a period of not more than 90 days upon consent of the lead agency and the applicant.
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Section 15109. Suspension of Time Periods.
An unreasonable delay by an applicant in meeting requests by the lead agency necessary for the preparation of a negative declaration or an EIR shall suspend the running of the time periods described in Sections 15107 and 15108 for the period of the unreasonable delay. Alternatively, an agency may disapprove a project application where there is unreasonable delay in meeting requests. The agency may allow a renewed application to start at the same point in the process where the application was when it was disapproved.
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Section 15110. Projects with Federal Involvement.
(a) At the request of an applicant, the lead agency may waive the one-year time limit for completing and certifying a final EIR or the 105-day period for completing a negative declaration if:

(1) The project will be subject to CEQA and to the National Environmental Policy Act,

(2) Additional time will be required to prepare a combined EIR-EIS or combined negative declaration-finding of no significant impact as provided in Section 15221, and

(3) The time required to prepare the combined document will be shorter than the time required to prepare the documents separately.

(b) The time limits for taking final action on a permit for a development project may also be waived where a combined EIR-EIS will be prepared.

(c) The time limits for processing permits for development projects under Government Code Sections 65950-65960 shall not apply if federal statutes or regulations require time schedules which exceed the state time limits. In this event, any state agencies involved shall make a final decision on the project within the federal time limits.
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Section 15111. Projects with Short Time Periods for Approval.
(a) A few statutes or ordinances require agencies to make decisions on permits within time limits that are so short that review of the project under CEQA would be difficult. To enable the lead agency to comply with both the permit statute and CEQA, the lead agency shall deem an application for a project not received for filing under the permit statute or ordinance until such time as progress toward completing the environmental documentation required by CEQA is sufficient to enable the lead agency to finish the CEQA process within the short permit time limit. This section will apply where all of the following conditions are met:

(1) The enabling legislation for a program, other than Chapter 4.5 (commencing with Section 65920) of Division 1 of Title 7 of the Government Code, requires the lead agency to take action on an application within a specified period of time that is six months or less, and

(2) The enabling legislation provides that the project will become approved by operation of law if the lead agency fails to take any action within such specified time period, and

(3) The project involves the issuance of a lease, permit, license, certificate, or other entitlement for use.

(b) Examples of time periods subject to this section include but are not limited to:

(1) Action on a timber harvesting plan by the Director of Forestry within 15 days pursuant to Section 4582.7 of the Public Resources Code,

(2) Action on a permit by the San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission within 90 days pursuant to Section 66632(f) of the Government Code, and

(3) Action on an oil and gas permit by the Division of Oil and Gas within 10 days pursuant to Sections 3203 or 3724 of the Public Resources Code.

(c) In any case described in this section, the environmental document shall be completed or certified and the decision on the project shall be made within the period established under the Permit Streamlining Act (Government Code Sections 65920, et seq.).
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Section 15112. Statutes of Limitations.
(a) CEQA provides unusually short statutes of limitations on filing court challenges to the approval of projects under the act.

(b) The statute of limitations periods are not public review periods or waiting periods for the person whose project has been approved. The project sponsor may proceed to carry out the project as soon as the necessary permits have been granted. The statute of limitations cuts off the right of another person to file a court action challenging approval of the project after the specified time period has expired.

(c) The statute of limitations periods under CEQA are as follows:

(1) Where the public agency filed a notice of determination in compliance with Sections 15075 or 15094, 30 days after the filing of the notice and the posting on a list of such notices.

(2) Where the public agency filed a notice of exemption in compliance with Section 15062, 35 days after the filing of the notice and the posting on a list of such notices.

(3) Where a certified state regulatory agency files a notice of decision in compliance with Public Resources Code Section 21080.5(d)(2)(E), 30 days after the filing of the notice.

(4) Where the Secretary for Resources certifies a state environmental regulatory agency under Public Resources Code Section 21080.5, the certification may be challenged only during the 30 days following the certification decision.

(5) Where none of the other statute of limitations periods in this section apply, 180 days after either:

(A) The public agency's decision to carry out or approve the project, or

(B) Commencement of the project if the project is undertaken without a formal decision by the public agency.

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