---
type: "Bill"
title: "California Environmental Quality Act: aesthetic impacts."
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: "20232024"
identifier: "AB 356"
citation: "California AB 356 (20232024)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["California Environmental Quality Act", "aesthetic impacts"]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Mathis"]
version_count: 6
action_count: 23
vote_count: 5
first_action: "2023-01-31"
last_action: "2023-07-27"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/8cddc247-6212-43ee-8805-9f795ddd7b5c"
source_url: "http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202320240AB356"
source_hash: "92688aaea2a0b172a017f69d553a7b1966ec66ae195b3a6484c43082db831c08"
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 356 (20232024) — California Environmental Quality Act: aesthetic impacts.

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. **01/31/23 - Introduced** (filed) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=202320240AB356&version=20230AB35699INT)
2. **03/07/23 - Amended Assembly** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=202320240AB356&version=20230AB35698AMD)
3. **04/18/23 - Amended Assembly** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=202320240AB356&version=20230AB35697AMD)
4. **07/27/23 - Chaptered** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=202320240AB356&version=20230AB35695CHP)
5. **AB356** (committee substitute) — [source](http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202320240AB356)
6. **07/14/23 - Enrolled** (enrolled) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=202320240AB356&version=20230AB35696ENR)

## Votes

- AB 356 Mathis Consent Calendar Second Day — **75–0** (pass) · lower
- Do pass as amended and be re-referred to the Committee on [Appropriations] — **11–0** (pass) · lower
- Do pass. To Consent Calendar. — **16–0** (pass) · lower
- Do pass, but first be re-referred to the Committee on [Appropriations] with the recommendation: To Consent Calendar — **7–0** (pass) · upper
- Consent Calendar AB356 Mathis et al. — **37–0** (pass) · upper

## Sponsors

- Mathis — primary (person)
- Dixon — coauthor (person)
- Flora — coauthor (person)
- McCarty — coauthor (person)
- Ochoa Bogh — coauthor (person)
- Ting — coauthor (person)
- Wallis — coauthor (person)
- Wiener — coauthor (person)

## Timeline

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

- **2023-01-31** Read first time. To print. `reading-1`
- **2023-02-01** From printer. May be heard in committee March 3.
- **2023-02-09** Referred to Com. on NAT. RES. `referral-committee`
- **2023-03-07** From committee chair, with author's amendments: Amend, and re-refer to Com. on NAT. RES. Read second time and amended. `amendment-introduction, amendment-passage, reading-1, reading-2`
- **2023-03-08** Re-referred to Com. on NAT. RES. `referral-committee`
- **2023-03-14** In committee: Set, first hearing. Hearing canceled at the request of author.
- **2023-04-17** From committee: Amend, and do pass as amended and re-refer to Com. on APPR. (Ayes 11. Noes 0.) (April 10). `amendment-introduction, amendment-passage, committee-passage, referral-committee`
- **2023-04-18** Read second time and amended. `amendment-passage, reading-1, reading-2`
- **2023-04-19** Re-referred to Com. on APPR. `referral-committee`
- **2023-04-26** From committee: Do pass. To Consent Calendar. (Ayes 16. Noes 0.) (April 26). `committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable`
- **2023-04-27** Read second time. Ordered to Consent Calendar. `reading-1, reading-2`
- **2023-05-04** Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Senate. (Ayes 75. Noes 0. Page 1461.) `passage, reading-1, reading-3`
- **2023-05-04** In Senate. Read first time. To Com. on RLS. for assignment. `reading-1`
- **2023-05-17** Referred to Com. on E.Q. `referral-committee`
- **2023-06-07** From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on APPR with recommendation: To Consent Calendar. (Ayes 7. Noes 0.) (June 7). Re-referred to Com. on APPR. `committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable, referral-committee`
- **2023-06-22** In committee: Hearing postponed by committee.
- **2023-07-03** From committee: Be ordered to second reading file pursuant to Senate Rule 28.8 and ordered to Consent Calendar. `committee-passage, reading-2`
- **2023-07-05** Read second time. Ordered to Consent Calendar. `reading-1, reading-2`
- **2023-07-13** Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Assembly. (Ayes 37. Noes 0. Page 2036.). `passage, reading-1, reading-3`
- **2023-07-13** In Assembly. Ordered to Engrossing and Enrolling. `committee-passage`
- **2023-07-25** Enrolled and presented to the Governor at 4 p.m.
- **2023-07-27** Approved by the Governor. `executive-signature`
- **2023-07-27** Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter 116, Statutes of 2023. `became-law`

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/8cddc247-6212-43ee-8805-9f795ddd7b5c`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official California legislature records).