Planning Process and Schedule
The Environmental Justice Elements Planning Initiative is anticipated to be completed in 2026. The steps of the project and schedule are outlined below.
Research EJ Issues and Communities
2024 — 2025
Engage Communities
2024 — 2025
Develop EJ Elements
Summer 2026
We are here.
Adopt
Summer/Fall 2026
Research Environmental Justice Issues and Communities. The Environmental Justice Elements Planning Initiative involves the preparation of Environmental Justice Elements that are consistent with Senate Bill (SB) 1000 for the City of Burlingame, City of East Palo Alto, and County of San Mateo. The Environmental Justice Elements will include goals, objectives, and policies to address the unique or compound health risks that are faced in what SB 1000 calls “disadvantaged communities.” The first step in the process is to research environmental justice issues and identify preliminary disadvantaged communities for each jurisdiction based on available data. This initial data review was completed in 2024 and 2025.
Engage Communities. To effectively identify disadvantaged communities and the issues they face, our approach must be rooted in the local community context to ensure the areas identified as disadvantaged reflect on-the-ground conditions. Therefore, an essential next step is to vet and ground truth the preliminary mapping and to learn more about the issues faced in these communities through the local knowledge and expertise of community members. This community engagement was completed in 2024 and 2025.
Develop Draft Environmental Justice Elements. Using the information collected and refined over the previous two steps, the next step will be to prepare the Draft Environmental Justice Elements. The environmental review required by the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) for the Environmental Justice Elements will also occur at this time. The process to draft the elements and conduct the environmental review is underway and expected to be complete in summer 2026.
Adopt the Environmental Justice Elements. The adoption phase includes formal hearings with the decision-making bodies for each jurisdiction to consider adoption of the Environmental Justice Elements. These would be the Planning Commission for each jurisdiction, as well as the City Council for East Palo Alto and Burlingame and the Board of Supervisors for San Mateo County. The adoption hearings are anticipated to occur in summer/fall 2026.
Research Environmental Justice Issues and Communities. The Environmental Justice Elements Planning Initiative involves the preparation of Environmental Justice Elements that are consistent with Senate Bill (SB) 1000 for the City of Burlingame, City of East Palo Alto, and County of San Mateo. The Environmental Justice Elements will include goals, objectives, and policies to address the unique or compound health risks that are faced in what SB 1000 calls “disadvantaged communities.” The first step in the process is to research environmental justice issues and identify preliminary disadvantaged communities for each jurisdiction based on available data. This initial data review process began in summer 2023 and is anticipated to be completed in early 2024.
Engage Communities. To effectively identify disadvantaged communities and the issues they face, our approach must be rooted in the local community context to ensure the areas identified as disadvantaged reflect on-the-ground conditions. Therefore, an essential next step is to vet and ground truth the preliminary mapping and to learn more about the issues faced in these communities through the local knowledge and expertise of community members. This community engagement is anticipated to occur in spring 2024.
Develop Draft Environmental Justice Elements. Using the information collected and refined over the previous two steps, the next step will be to prepare the Draft Environmental Justice Elements. The environmental review required by the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) for the Environmental Justice Elements will also occur at this time. The process to draft the elements and conduct the environmental review is expected to occur between summer 2024 and spring 2025.
Adopt the Environmental Justice Elements. The adoption phase includes formal hearings with the decision-making bodies for each jurisdiction to consider adoption of the Environmental Justice Elements. The adoption hearings are anticipated to occur in spring 2025.