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Environmental Planning: CEQA Compliance


County of Sacramento

With a new General Plan on the horizon and many new staff members, the County of Sacramento needed strong technical training in CEQA on a short timeframe. UC Davis Extension created training that met the County's unique needs by reworking a popular open enrollment courses.

The need: The Planning and Community Development Department of the County of Sacramento contacted UCDE in late May 2008 with a critical need to update its planning staff in CEQA law. The county needed this refresher course to reach staff by the end of the year.

The solution: UC Davis Extension's instructional team worked with county planning officials to design a customized class based on the popular open enrollment course CEQA: A Step by Step Approach. We added specific content on new development planning and review challenges tailored to the county’s land use application review process. Nearly 50 staff members attended the training in November 2008.

Attendees commented that the class provided a useful background in CEQA requirements, integrating real-life situations that pertained specifically to Sacramento County projects and incorporating environmental documents that county planners routinely work on. Participant feedback included: “Very engaging with lots of examples,” “Made a very complex subject interesting and relevant,” and “Real projects as examples of issues discussed in class.”

Meet the instructors: Ken Bogdan, J.D., is a principal and senior environmental counsel for ICF International in Sacramento. He specializes in issues regarding compliance with environmental laws and regulations, including CEQA, NEPA, wetlands and endangered species regulations. He has authored numerous articles and publications, including CEQA Deskbook, The NEPA Book and Wetlands Regulation.
Antero Rivasplata is a senior environmental planner with ICF International in Sacramento. Prior to assuming that position, he was the chief of the state clearinghouse in the governor’s Office of Planning and Research in Sacramento. He has extensive experience with CEQA and state planning law.