The California State Legislature has passed a bill that could significantly speed up the long-awaited reconstruction of the Pajaro River levee — a project that has been talked about for nearly 60 years.
Source: KAZU
The bill, sponsored by Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas who represents the region, exempts the project from some of those rules, and allows it to bypass review under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) that could have held it up for years. It also allows construction to begin next year instead of 2025, as originally planned. In all, the bill could shave as much as 5 years off of the original timeline, according to Mark Strudley, executive director of the Pajaro Regional Flood Management Agency.