---
type: "Bill"
title: "California Environmental Quality Act: exemption: roadway improvement."
description: "The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) requires a lead agency, as defined, to prepare, or cause to be prepared, and certify the completion of, an environmental impact report on a project that it proposes to carry out or approve that may have a significant effect on the environment or to adopt a negative declaration if it finds that the project will not have that effect. CEQA also requires a lead agency to prepare a mitigated negative declaration for a project that may have a significant effect on the environment if revisions in the project would avoid or mitigate that effect and there is no substantial evidence that the project, as revised, would have a significant effect on the environment."
jurisdiction: "us/states/ca"
legislature: "California Legislature"
session: "20152016"
identifier: "AB 323"
citation: "California AB 323 (20152016)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["California Environmental Quality Act: exemption: roadway improvement."]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Olsen"]
version_count: 5
action_count: 18
vote_count: 5
first_action: "2015-02-13"
last_action: "2015-07-06"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/9cbda3ea-60f0-4f65-a48d-3b5eb4bffbb4"
source_url: "http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201520160AB323"
source_hash: "1b3a5cdd36ae4a08d2e50af64097fe3a058812917dd9987e888675241e5bcea7"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-ca"]
---

# California AB 323 (20152016) — California Environmental Quality Act: exemption: roadway improvement.

The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) requires a lead agency, as defined, to prepare, or cause to be prepared, and certify the completion of, an environmental impact report on a project that it proposes to carry out or approve that may have a significant effect on the environment or to adopt a negative declaration if it finds that the project will not have that effect. CEQA also requires a lead agency to prepare a mitigated negative declaration for a project that may have a significant effect on the environment if revisions in the project would avoid or mitigate that effect and there is no substantial evidence that the project, as revised, would have a significant effect on the environment.

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. **02/13/15 - Introduced** (filed) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201520160AB323&version=20150AB32399INT)
2. **04/06/15 - Amended Assembly** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201520160AB323&version=20150AB32398AMD)
3. **07/06/15 - Chaptered** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201520160AB323&version=20150AB32396CHP)
4. **AB323** (committee substitute) — [source](http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201520160AB323)
5. **06/24/15 - Enrolled** (enrolled) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201520160AB323&version=20150AB32397ENR)

## Votes

- Do pass. To Consent Calendar. — **15–0** (pass) · lower
- Do pass as amended and be re-referred to the Committee on [Transportation] — **9–0** (pass) · lower
- Do pass and be ordered to the Consent Calendar — **7–0** (pass) · upper
- AB 323 OLSEN Consent Calendar Second Day — **79–0** (pass) · lower
- Consent Calendar 2nd — **37–0** (pass) · upper

## Sponsors

- Olsen — primary (person)
- Achadjian — coauthor (person)
- Baker — coauthor (person)
- Bates — coauthor (person)
- Bigelow — coauthor (person)
- Chávez — coauthor (person)
- Galgiani — coauthor (person)
- Gallagher — coauthor (person)
- Grove — coauthor (person)
- Huff — coauthor (person)
- Lackey — coauthor (person)
- Linder — coauthor (person)
- Maienschein — coauthor (person)
- Mayes — coauthor (person)
- Obernolte — coauthor (person)
- Perea — coauthor (person)
- Travis Allen — coauthor (person)
- Vidak — coauthor (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2015-02-13** Read first time. To print. `reading-1`
- **2015-02-17** From printer. May be heard in committee March 19.
- **2015-02-23** Referred to Coms. on NAT. RES. and TRANS. `referral-committee`
- **2015-03-26** From committee: Amend, and do pass as amended and re-refer to Com. on TRANS. (Ayes 9. Noes 0.) (March 23). `amendment-introduction, committee-passage, amendment-passage`
- **2015-04-06** Read second time and amended. `amendment-passage, reading-2, reading-1`
- **2015-04-07** Re-referred to Com. on TRANS. `referral-committee`
- **2015-04-21** From committee: Do pass. To Consent Calendar. (Ayes 15. Noes 0.) (April 20). `committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage`
- **2015-04-22** Read second time. Ordered to Consent Calendar. `reading-2, reading-1`
- **2015-04-27** Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Senate. (Ayes 79. Noes 0. Page 1145.) `reading-3, passage, reading-1`
- **2015-04-27** In Senate. Read first time. To Com. on RLS. for assignment. `reading-1`
- **2015-05-07** Referred to Com. on E.Q. `referral-committee`
- **2015-06-17** From committee: Do pass. To Consent Calendar. (Ayes 7. Noes 0.) (June 17). `committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage`
- **2015-06-18** Read second time. Ordered to Consent Calendar. `reading-2, reading-1`
- **2015-06-22** Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Assembly. (Ayes 37. Noes 0. Page 1548.). `reading-3, passage, reading-1`
- **2015-06-23** In Assembly. Ordered to Engrossing and Enrolling. `committee-passage`
- **2015-06-26** Enrolled and presented to the Governor at 11 a.m.
- **2015-07-06** Approved by the Governor. `executive-signature`
- **2015-07-06** Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter 52, Statutes of 2015.

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/9cbda3ea-60f0-4f65-a48d-3b5eb4bffbb4`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official California legislature records).