The California Office of Planning and Research, State
Clearinghouse Unit, has adopted new rules for accepting
environmental documents for posting. Beginning Nov. 3, OPR will no
longer accept hard copies of environmental documents, including
notices of determinations and exemptions. Additionally, OPR will
not accept email submission of notices at
state.clearinghouse@opr.ca.gov. Instead, all agencies will be
required to submit California Environmental Quality Act documents
and notices online through the CEQA Net Database. The CEQA Net
Database is available now for those who wish to start submitting
documents using the new format.
Several provisions of CEQA require that documents, such as
environmental impact reports and mitigated negative declarations,
be submitted to OPR in certain circumstances as part of the CEQA
noticing process. For example, EIRs and MNDs must be submitted to
OPR if a state agency is a responsible agency or a trustee agency,
where state agencies must review the project, or if the project has
statewide, regional or area wide significance. To submit
environmental documents to OPR after Nov. 3, you must register with
OPR by sending an email request to state.clearinghouse@opr.ca.gov with the
following applicable information:
Lead Agency Registration:
- Lead agency representative name (person submitting CEQA documents) and work email
- If a lead agency authorizes a consultant or consulting firm to submit CEQA documents on their behalf, the following information is needed: Representative name (person authorizing consultant at consulting firm) and their work email and telephone and fax numbers.
Consulting Firm/Consultant Registration:
- Consultant name and email
- A lead agency must approve the request for the consulting firm or consultant. The consulting firm must identify the lead agency representative authorizing the consulting firm/consultant available and that person's work email address, physical address and telephone and fax numbers.
- If there are other people in the consulting firm that need access to file environmental documents, they should be identified as well as the lead agency's approval information noted above.
Responsible Agency Representative Registration:
- Responsible agency representative name (person submitting CEQA documents)
- Official work email
If you are not the lead agency or responsible agency
representative, your submission must be approved by the lead agency
or responsible agency's representative before the document will
be accepted by OPR. You will need to provide the
representative's name, work address, work email address and
telephone and fax numbers when submitting your notice on the CEQA
Net Database.
Once registered as an official user, you may submit documents at
the following website address: https://ceqasubmit.opr.ca.gov/.
OPR has created a document entitled "Register and Submit CEQA
Documents to Office of Planning and Research (OPR), State
Clearinghouse (SCH)." Once you are registered, you should
familiarize yourself with the CEQA Database Terms of Use. For
complete instructions on how to register and submit documents to
the CEQA Database, scroll to the bottom of this page: CEQA Document Submission - Office of Planning and
Research.
Registered users may begin submitting environmental documents and
notices immediately under the new system. We recommend that you
register early and become familiar with the new submittal
guidelines and database.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.