After high hopes of enacting meaningful change to environmental review in California, CEQA reform has hit the back burner. At the start of 2013, Darrell Steinberg, then leader of the state Senate, was optimistic about improving CEQA. He was supported by Governor Jerry Brown and Senator Michael Rubio, who had large support from the business community, but the path to CEQA reform took a turn when Rubio unexpectedly resigned. Senate Bill 731 was drafted late into the legislative session, and businesses and environmentalists alike began to critcize the bill.

The bill aimed to streamline approval of infill projects as well as clean up some hiccups in the environmental review process. A list of “intents” were incorporated into the document to address the hiccups, such as prohibiting document dumps late in the CEQA process simply to delay projects by extending or exciting litigation and providing clearer direction to courts regarding what could and could not invalidate an environmental document. The bill was quickly scrapped, and Senate Bill 743 was put in its place. The main purpose of Senate Bill 743 was to streamlinethe review for a proposed arena for the Sacramento Kings, but several provisions applied statewide.

Senate Bill 731 was supposed to return to the drawing board in 2014, but California is still waiting.