On July 11, the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act, Pub. L. No. 119-101, 140 Stat. 845, became law without the president’s signature. The ROAD Act is an effort to facilitate an improvement in the affordability of housing. It passed both chambers with large bi-partisan majorities. Embedded within it are provisions addressing environmental issues—primarily environmental review of projects—that merit some attention by environmental practitioners for two reasons. First, for those thinking about what a reconstructed environmental regulatory system should look like after the current federal administration, the ROAD Act suggests a bipartisan antipathy to review under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). Second, one of the provisions may seek to prompt exemption of certain housing projects from state environmental review and therefore may affect how the Environmental Rights Amendment to the Pennsylvania Constitution, Article I, Section 27, is implemented in the case of residential development.
Read “Environmental Provisions of the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act,” authored by David G. Mandelbaum, on The Legal Intelligencer website. (Subscription)
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*The opinions expressed in this column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Greenberg Traurig or its clients.
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