republic-os/legislation/us/states/ca/20232024/ab-1449.md

---
type: "Bill"
title: "Affordable housing: California Environmental Quality Act: exemption."
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. CEQA authorizes the lead agency, if the lead agency determines that a project is exempt from CEQA, to file a notice of exemption with the Office of Planning and Research or the county clerk of each county in which the project is located."
jurisdiction: "us/states/ca"
legislature: "California Legislature"
session: "20232024"
identifier: "AB 1449"
citation: "California AB 1449 (20232024)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["Affordable housing", "California Environmental Quality Act", "exemption"]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Alvarez"]
version_count: 7
action_count: 26
vote_count: 7
first_action: "2023-02-17"
last_action: "2023-10-11"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/37271b7e-cb9d-4455-8a3c-70537448fff6"
source_url: "http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202320240AB1449"
source_hash: "be2cd230c15232c333a6a3cc5d95f1afc80dd23836c81c4f86adc14c11a6e9de"
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 1449 (20232024) — Affordable housing: California Environmental Quality Act: exemption.

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. CEQA authorizes the lead agency, if the lead agency determines that a project is exempt from CEQA, to file a notice of exemption with the Office of Planning and Research or the county clerk of each county in which the project is located.

## Version chain

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

1. **02/17/23 - Introduced** (filed) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=202320240AB1449&version=20230AB144999INT)
2. **03/23/23 - Amended Assembly** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=202320240AB1449&version=20230AB144998AMD)
3. **04/19/23 - Amended Assembly** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=202320240AB1449&version=20230AB144997AMD)
4. **05/01/23 - Amended Assembly** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=202320240AB1449&version=20230AB144996AMD)
5. **10/11/23 - Chaptered** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=202320240AB1449&version=20230AB144994CHP)
6. **AB1449** (committee substitute) — [source](http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202320240AB1449)
7. **09/11/23 - Enrolled** (enrolled) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=202320240AB1449&version=20230AB144995ENR)

## Votes

- 3rd Reading AB1449 Alvarez et al. By Wiener — **32–2** (pass) · upper
- AB 1449 Alvarez Assembly Third Reading — **54–13** (pass) · lower
- Do pass, but first be re-referred to the Committee on [Appropriations] — **9–0** (pass) · upper
- Do pass as amended and be re-referred to the Committee on [Appropriations] — **7–1** (pass) · lower
- Do pass, but first be re-referred to the Committee on [Housing] — **6–0** (pass) · upper
- Do pass as amended and be re-referred to the Committee on [Housing and Community Development] — **8–1** (pass) · lower
- Do pass. — **12–3** (pass) · lower

## Sponsors

- Alvarez — primary (person)
- Wicks — author (person)

## Timeline

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

- **2023-02-17** Read first time. To print. `reading-1`
- **2023-02-18** From printer. May be heard in committee March 20.
- **2023-03-23** Referred to Coms. on NAT. RES. and H. & C.D. `referral-committee`
- **2023-03-23** 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`
- **2023-03-27** Re-referred to Com. on NAT. RES. `referral-committee`
- **2023-04-11** In committee: Hearing postponed by committee.
- **2023-04-18** From committee: Amend, and do pass as amended and re-refer to Com. on H. & C.D. (Ayes 8. Noes 1.) (April 17). `amendment-introduction, amendment-passage, committee-passage, referral-committee`
- **2023-04-19** Read second time and amended. `amendment-passage, reading-1, reading-2`
- **2023-04-20** Re-referred to Com. on H. & C.D. `referral-committee`
- **2023-04-27** From committee: Amend, and do pass as amended and re-refer to Com. on APPR. (Ayes 7. Noes 1.) (April 26). `amendment-introduction, amendment-passage, committee-passage, referral-committee`
- **2023-05-01** Read second time and amended. `amendment-passage, reading-1, reading-2`
- **2023-05-02** Re-referred to Com. on APPR. `referral-committee`
- **2023-05-10** From committee: Do pass. (Ayes 12. Noes 3.) (May 10). `committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable`
- **2023-05-11** Read second time. Ordered to third reading. `reading-1, reading-2`
- **2023-05-18** Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Senate. (Ayes 54. Noes 13. Page 1592.) `passage, reading-1, reading-3`
- **2023-05-18** In Senate. Read first time. To Com. on RLS. for assignment. `reading-1`
- **2023-05-31** Referred to Coms. on E.Q. and HOUSING. `referral-committee`
- **2023-06-21** From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on HOUSING. (Ayes 6. Noes 0.) (June 21). Re-referred to Com. on HOUSING. `committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable, referral-committee`
- **2023-07-11** From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on APPR. (Ayes 9. Noes 0.) (July 10). Re-referred to Com. on APPR. `committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable, referral-committee`
- **2023-08-14** From committee: Be ordered to second reading pursuant to Senate Rule 28.8. `committee-passage, reading-2`
- **2023-08-15** Read second time. Ordered to third reading. `reading-1, reading-2`
- **2023-09-07** Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Assembly. (Ayes 32. Noes 2. Page 2462.). `passage, reading-1, reading-3`
- **2023-09-07** In Assembly. Ordered to Engrossing and Enrolling. `committee-passage`
- **2023-09-13** Enrolled and presented to the Governor at 3 p.m.
- **2023-10-11** Approved by the Governor. `executive-signature`
- **2023-10-11** Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter 761, 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/37271b7e-cb9d-4455-8a3c-70537448fff6`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official California legislature records).