In 2014, Assembly Bill 52 (Gatto) added new requirements to the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) regarding consultation with California Native American tribes and consideration of tribal cultural resources. The new requirements apply to projects that have a notice of preparation for a negative declaration, mitigated negative declaration, or an environmental impact report filed on or after July 1, 2015.
AB 52 also requires the Office of Planning and Research (OPR) to develop proposed updates to the sample initial study checklist n Appendix G of the CEQA Guidelines and the California Resources Agency to complete the regulatory process for adoption of the updates on or before July 1, 2016. In the interim, lead agencies are still required to implement the procedural requirements of AB 52. OPR has prepared a draft Technical Advisory and is in the process of finalizing the draft to provide guidance to lead agencies regarding implementation of the recent changes.
The draft Technical Advisory and additional information can be accessed here.