Pub. Resources Code, § 21080.09

(a) For purposes of this section, the following definitions apply:

(1) “Public higher education” has the same meaning as specified in Section 66010 of the Education Code.

(2) “Long-range development plan” means a physical development and land use plan to meet the academic and institutional objectives for a particular campus or medical center of public higher education.

(b) The selection of a location for a particular campus and the approval of a long-range development plan are subject to this division and require the preparation of an environmental impact report.

(c) The approval of a project on a particular campus or medical center of public higher education is subject to this division and may be addressed, subject to the other provisions of this division, in a tiered environmental analysis based upon a long-range development plan environmental impact report.

(d) Compliance with this section satisfies the obligations of public higher education pursuant to this division to consider the environmental impact of academic and campus population plans as they affect campuses or medical centers, provided that any such plans shall become effective for a campus or medical center only after the environmental effects of those plans have been analyzed as required by this division in a long-range development plan environmental impact report or tiered analysis based upon that environmental impact report for that campus or medical center, and addressed as required by this division. Enrollment or changes in enrollment, by themselves, do not constitute a project as defined in Section 21065.

(e) (1) If a court determines that increases in campus population exceed the projections adopted in the most recent long-range development plan and analyzed in the supporting environmental impact report, and those increases result in significant environmental impacts, the court may order the campus or medical center to prepare a new, supplemental, or subsequent environmental impact report. Only if a new, supplemental, or subsequent environmental impact report has not been certified within 18 months of that order, the court may, pursuant to Sections 525 and 526 of the Code of Civil Procedure, enjoin increases in campus population that exceed the projections adopted in the most recent long-range development plan and analyzed in the supporting environmental impact report.

(2) Notwithstanding any other provision of this division, any injunction or judgment in effect as of the effective date of this subdivision suspending or otherwise affecting enrollment shall be unenforceable.

(3) The amendments made to this section by Senate Bill 118 of the 2021–22 Regular Session shall apply retroactively to any decision related to enrollment or changes in enrollment made before the effective date of that bill.