Lead agencies cannot ignore the Coastal Act’s ESHA requirements in CEQA documents and defer analysis for later Coastal Commission review.

Key Points:

..CEQA requires an EIR to identify potential environmentally sensitive habitat areas and account for those areas in its analysis of project alternatives and mitigation measures.

..An EIR must lay out any competing views between agencies, and both the Coastal Commissioners and members of the public are entitled to understand disagreements between Commission staff and the local agency on the subject of ESHA.