Senate Environmental Quality Committee

00:05 - 00:40

Speaker 1

Good morning. We are calling to order officially the Environmental Quality Committee in Room 21 Hundred and encourage all members to come. We have one bill, s b eight thirty, by senator Aragwene, and we will start as a subcommittee. So we invite you to come forward if you are ready to present. And if you have any witnesses, they're welcome to come forward as well.

You're welcome to proceed when ready.

00:40 - 02:23

Speaker 2

Thank you very much, Madam Chair, for the opportunity to present Senate Bill eight thirty. This bill will establish a CEQUA streamlining process for Sutter Health's new hospital campus in Emeryville and would designate the City Of Emeryville as a lead agency for CEQUA review. This is a district bill. With the closure of Doctors Medical Center in 2015 in my Senate district, many patients were transferred to Alta Bates, and now Alta Bates is slated to close in the year 2030 due to the state seismic mandates. We cannot afford to lose health care access in the Northern East Bay Area.

As planned, the new Sutter Health Emeryville campus will be a state of the art facility that will replace all the services that Alta Bates currently provides, ensuring that patients will be able to conveniently reach comprehensive care within a fifteen minute drive from home or work. SB eight thirty will allow the new Emeryville project to be built without delays or obstacles, which is particularly important given that this 2030 timeline is looming. And so if we don't get this hospital built on a more expedited basis, that's gonna create a significant gap in coverage in an area that's already becoming a hospital desert in my district. In order to receive secret streamlining, Sutter Health must meet certain conditions, such as agreeing to a community benefits agreement with the City of Emeryville, ensuring that the project be net zero, and that it create 500 new construction jobs. This bill will ensure that my constituents have full service acute care services in a high quality new facility, while ensuring that we can retain our existing workforce in the region with a new health care facility.

This bill passed the Assembly with bipartisan support on the vote of 79 to zero, and I respectfully ask for your I vote at the appropriate time. And we have a witness here on behalf of Sutter Health.

02:23 - 02:26

Speaker 1

Welcome. You can proceed when ready.

02:27 - 02:55

Speaker 3

Morning, members. Joe Gregerich, Vice President of State Government Affairs with Sutter Health. We are the sponsors in strong support of the bill. It's a very busy time of year, so I'll be brief. We are very committed to our project in Emeryville in the East Bay in the Senators District, and we believe that this is an important step to being able to build that hospital as quickly and expeditiously as possible.

And with that, we urge your I vote. Thank you. Here to answer any questions.

02:55 - 03:00

Speaker 1

Okay. Thank you. Are there others in the room wishing to express support? Good morning. Mr.

McHaley, go ahead.

03:00 - 03:05

Speaker 4

Good morning, Madam Chair. Chris McHaley here on behalf of the Civil Justice Association of California in support. Thank you.

03:05 - 04:43

Speaker 1

Okay. Thank you. Anyone else in the room wishing to express support? Do we have any opposition witnesses wishing to come forward as a primary opposition witness? Seeing none, do we have anyone in the room wishing to express opposition?

Seeing none, we will bring it back to the commit subcommittee here, and I'll just make a couple of quick comments. So we have seen many major reforms to CEQA this year, which I think underscores the responsiveness of the legislature to address the housing crisis and efforts to bring more growth back to California. Such reforms to CEQA, however, need to maintain important environmental protections and community input. And this bill, a b eight thirty, strikes that balance by retaining all the important environmental review and mitigation measures for a hospital campus project in your district while also speeding the project through the courts in the case that the project is sued under CEQA. The Environmental Leadership Hospital Campus, and that's in quotes, described by you just now, has to meet rigorous environmental standards, including having low vehicle miles traveled, being LEED certified, and having a community benefits agreement.

Providing judicial streamlining to projects that are environmental leaders ensures that California is not just building faster, but also building more of the type of green developments that we need to see. And that's why I am in support of a b eight thirty today. And I just wanna highlight the importance of these community benefits agreement, which seems to be one of the things that we're focusing more now on when we are streamlining CEQA is recognizing that there need to be community benefits. So I was really happy to see that as part of this. So with that, I'll see if there are any other comments from the committee.

Great. And I'll hand it back to you to close.

04:44 - 05:10

Speaker 2

I'll just note that the state has implemented this type of streamlining tool for major economic development projects throughout the state. We built off that legislative framework, but really this is about ensuring this hospital can get built on an expedited basis so there is no gap in services in this very significant part of the state of California, and making sure that we have good union jobs, that we're meeting strong sustainability standards, that we have community benefits. That's the goal of this bill, I respectfully ask for an I vote.

05:10 - 05:29

Speaker 1

Yes. And it's going to cost over $1,000,000,000 So it's a major investment in a hospital, which is great to see because we see our hospitals are really under stress right now. Well, unfortunately, we do not have a quorum, so we're not able to vote at this moment. But when we are, we will. So you're welcome.

Is that your close?

05:29 - 05:30

Speaker 2

That is my close.

05:30 - 06:16

Speaker 1

Okay. Great. Well, then we will proceed to stay here, but you can go to the next committee. I know you have another one. Thank you.

And thank you for your testimony. The EQ committee will go into recess. Alright. We are back from our recess. Environmental Quality Committee now has a quorum.

So assistant, please call the roll.

06:17 - 06:26

Speaker 5

Senators Blakespeare? Present. Blakespeare present. Valadares, Dally? Gonzales?

Here. Gonzales here. Hurtado? Minjevar?

06:26 - 06:26

Speaker 1

Here.

06:26 - 06:32

Speaker 5

Minjevar here. Perez? Here. Perez here. Reyes?

Here. Reyes here. We have a quorum.