A USC symposium heard today that the issue of global climate will change real estate industries.
The California Environmental Quality Act, or CEQA, long a target for reform by the homebuilding industry, already is being used as a tool to raise questions about how real estate developments affect global warming, speakers said at the USC Law School 2008 Symposium on Real Estate Law and Business in Los Angeles. In addition, recently adopted Assembly Bill 32, which requires California to reduce carbon emissions to 1990 levels by 2020, also likely will have impacts on the real estate industry.”There will be no construction except for green building,” said Craig Moyer of the Manatt, Phelps & Phillips law firm.
There currently is a great deal of uncertainty about CEQA, the law that requires developers to create Environmental Impact Reports, said James Arnone, an attorney with Latham & Watkins in L.A. Developers are uncertain about whether to include global warming when discussing what impacts their project likely will have on the environment. Arnone said developers have been sued by people arguing that if a project creates one molecule of carbon dioxide, it has a significant impact.
In addition, a recent settlement between the state Attorney General’s Office and San Bernardino County requires the county government there to find ways to reduce greenhouse gases in future land-use policies.
“This is likely to be a precedent we’re going to see elsewhere,” Arnone said. “It’s very unclear where this process ends.”
More regulation and appellate court decisions are likely in the future, he said. Arnone offered the following tips for developers who are preparing EIR’s:
- Climate change discussions must be consistent with the agency’s approach in other projects and decisions.
- Always quantify a project’s contribution to greenhouse gas emissions.
- Always quantify a project’s benefits, such as how mixed-use developments reduce commuter traffic trips.
- Incorporate climate change-related project design features into the agency’s findings.
Umm, yep all of those things are going to be required.
Relocalization of the OC economy will have multiple benefits and there will be winners and losers. Business lobbyists try to affect their preferred industry to be a winner.
I think RE developers just went through their winning cycle (and overbuilt to boot) and will be in a loser phase.
The pretend millionaires buying McMansions on NINJA loans will have to stop pretending and McMansions will be carved up like San Francisco’s Victorians (built during the last gilded age) to be multi-family dwellings.
Cheap oil is dead, long live cheap oil.
Lawyer/environmentalist parasites trying to cash in. Want to do something with your property? You must check with the Grand Carbon Inquisitor first!