Apple Campus 2 Qualifies for Expedited Environmental Review

[MacRumors]

The San Jose Mercury News reports that California Governor Jerry Brown's office has approved Apple's "Campus 2" project in Cupertino for a streamlined environmental review process. The new designation will not speed up construction on the project, which is scheduled to begin in early 2013, but will simplify the review process over the coming months.

"Apple's state-of-the art campus brings at least $100 million dollars in investment to California and generates no additional greenhouse gas emissions," Brown said in a statement to this newspaper, listing two of the requirements Apple had met to qualify under the law. "On-site fuel cells and 650,000 square feet of solar panels will provide clean, renewable energy for more than 12,000 Apple employees on the new campus."

Under the "leadership project" designation, any legal challenges to the project review would be fast-tracked through the courts, helping to minimize potential delays as Apple seeks to open the campus in 2015.

Article Link: Apple Campus 2 Qualifies for Expedited Environmental Review

 

[kjs862]

This building is going to be awesome!

 

[doobybiggs]

they should invest that money and bail out California from going bankrupt lol

 

[shartypants]

I would love to see the building when its done. Maybe they will have a publicly accessible employee store?

 

[clukas]

I would love to see the building when its done. Maybe they will have a publicly accessible employee store?

that would be really cool.

 

[rmwebs]

I would love to see the building when its done. Maybe they will have a publicly accessible employee store?

At a guess? I'd say no. You know what Apple are like - secretive to a whole new level. They wouldn't want to risk people seeing employees testing out prototypes on campus, so there is no way they will open part of it to the public.

The Googleplex has a very similar policy, with a non-disclosure agreement for guests, and a strict "no cameras allowed" ruling.

 

[Laird Knox]

They have already stated that the new campus will be closed to the public.

 

[imageWIS]

Unless the campus has underground tunnels criss-crossing from one end to the other... it's going to be a pain to go from one end to the other.

 

[Kurwenal]

Unless the campus has underground tunnels criss-crossing from one end to the other... it's going to be a pain to go from one end to the other.

iCaves...and they will be patented.



(Actually, as I recall, it's a parking lot underneath.)

 

[IJ Reilly]

This "expedited environmental review" exemption is kind of a phantom advantage, I suspect. If the project is controversial and a suit is filed over the adequacy of the EIR, it could cut out a step of court review, but that's about all. If the court finds that the EIR is inadequate, they still go back to Square 1 -- revision, recirculation, recertification, and probably court oversight of the new document.

In any case the "coolness" of the huge ring plan will read only from the air. From where most people will see it the ring plan will not make any sense. This building is form over substance, unfortunately.

 

[Rocketman]

They should invest that money and bail out California from going bankrupt.

It would be cheaper to give all congresscritters free one-on-one education on the subject of cost controls, fiscal control with emphasis on margin targeting, and off budget funding of services.

I volunteer to teach it.

Fast-tracking the project, however, doesn't mean construction will begin any sooner than the early-2013 time period Apple had previously announced. But by qualifying as a "leadership project" under legislation signed into law last year, Apple will enjoy a smoother judicial review process if legal action is brought against the project.

"Congratulations to Apple for being approved," said Cupertino spokesman Rick Kitson.

It sure is good they qualified for a law voted on and passed well after the project was announced, written to include them, and by pure coincidence not applied to any other large development projects yet. Congress is so predictable.

That said, good for Apple to get one more jack-boot off their neck.

 

[ghostlyorb]

Unless the campus has underground tunnels criss-crossing from one end to the other... it's going to be a pain to go from one end to the other.

"take this to Bay 1"...

*time for a mile round trip*

 

[thelink]

I hope this means more Apple products

 

[Carlanga]

Unless the campus has underground tunnels criss-crossing from one end to the other... it's going to be a pain to go from one end to the other.

well, in a circle the end is the start of the other end lol; but in all seriousness I think 90% of the employees in any office place tend to move only couple of feet from their cubicle.

 

[Spectrum Abuser]

Apple didn't build its own primary power source just for the sake of being 'green'. California is suffering from one of the worst[if not worst] power shortages in the states history. If they weren't so stuck up in terms of environmental conditions in relation to fossil fuel emissions they wouldn't be having this problem.

 

[whooleytoo]

well, in a circle the end is the start of the other end lol; but in all seriousness I think 90% of the employees in any office place tend to move only couple of feet from their cubicle.

Hah!

Still, I can imagine calculations going on in employees' heads; "Ok, I'm in Section 12. Need to get to 23. Is it quicker to walk clock-wise, or anti-clockwise..."

No doubt there'll be an app for that.

 

[thelink]

Hah!

Still, I can imagine calculations going on in employees' heads; "Ok, I'm in Section 12. Need to get to 23. Is it quicker to walk clock-wise, or anti-clockwise..."

No doubt there'll be an app for that.

I believe it is counterclockwise

 

[mixel]

Are we absolutely certain they don't have a particle accelerator in the plans somewhere?

 

[whooleytoo]

I believe it is counterclockwise

Still, it took you 3 minutes to come back with that answer. Would you be better off starting to walk in a (guess) direction while you worked that out mentally, or wait 3 minutes and then walk in the shortest direction.

 

[Laird Knox]

Unless the campus has underground tunnels criss-crossing from one end to the other... it's going to be a pain to go from one end to the other.

Good thing circles don't have "ends."

Why would you want underground tunnels? Don't want the Morlocks, err, engineers to ever see the light of day?

 

[LastName]

Hah!

Still, I can imagine calculations going on in employees' heads; "Ok, I'm in Section 12. Need to get to 23. Is it quicker to walk clock-wise, or anti-clockwise..."

No doubt there'll be an app for that.

Not necessary. Just hop on the iTram or iWalkway.

 

[applesith]

they should invest that money and bail out California from going bankrupt lol

They are already one of the largest tax payers in the state.

 

[patricia444]

Mac is most popular operating system of the world now a days.Every body want to work on mac operating system .............

 

[thelink]

Still, it took you 3 minutes to come back with that answer. Would you be better off starting to walk in a (guess) direction while you worked that out mentally, or wait 3 minutes and then walk in the shortest direction.

I'm not sure.

 

[IJ Reilly]

It sure is good they qualified for a law voted on and passed well after the project was announced, written to include them, and by pure coincidence not applied to any other large development projects yet. Congress is so predictable.

That said, good for Apple to get one more jack-boot off their neck.

Jack-boot, a really clever analogy.

Actually, not. The specially-tailored law you are probably thinking of is AB 292, designed to fast track environmental review for a new NFL stadium in downtown LA (a project of doubtful feasibility anyway). Apple qualified for SB 900, a different CEQA amendment also adopted last year. The Apple campus is one of two projects to be certified for this review process, so far.

Focussing on reality here for a moment if we might, the practical benefit to Apple could be very slight. They still have to produce a bulletproof EIR for the project, which could prove to be extremely difficult. The traffic impacts alone are going to be substantial, and likely not fully mitigable with the project as proposed. Without getting too arcane in an explanation of CEQA, Apple cannot answer the question of why they are not building a project with less impact with "because we don't want to" (even more to the point, Cupertino cannot adopt an EIR on this finding). This alone is a big hurdle to clear. Apple will have to depend far more on a very friendly political environment in Cupertino than any "jack boot" relief granted through SB 900.