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February 4, 2025 Page 7 7357-016j The properties require prezoning, solidifying its mandated role as lead agency.29 The City must therefore assume the role of CEQA lead agency for the Projects and prepare a new or revised DEIR which analyzes the changes in the Projects resulting from annexation and City land use entitlements, as well as the unresolved environmental and public health impacts addressed by EBRRD and other comments on the original DEIR.30 B. The City Must Prepare a New DEIR, or Revise and Recirculate the Arroyo Lago DEIR, to Analyze Both Projects and Comply with CEQA Recirculation of an EIR prior to certification is addressed in CEQA Section 21092.1 and CEQA Guidelines Section 15088.5. “When significant new information is added to an environmental impact report after notice has been given pursuant to Section 21092 … but prior to certification, the public agency shall give notice again pursuant to section 21092, and consult again pursuant to Sections 21104 and 21153 before certifying the environmental impact report.”31 “Significant new information” may include changes in the project, a new significant environmental impact, a substantial increase in the severity of an environmental impact, a feasible project alternative or mitigation measure considerably different from others previously analyzed or a situation where the draft EIR was so fundamentally and basically inadequate and conclusory in nature that meaningful public review and comment were precluded.32 In Mountain Lion, the court held that the crucial stage in which the public has the opportunity to meaningfully participate and comment on an environmental document is before the final document is issued. The court therefore refused to allow the analysis in the draft environmental document to be “bolstered by a document that was never circulated for public comment,”33 stating: Only at the stage when the draft EIR is circulated can the public and outside agencies have the opportunity to analyze a proposal and submit comments. 29 Staff Report, p. 14 of 18. 30 Planning & Conservation League v. Dep’t of Water Res. (2000) 83 Cal.App.4th 892, 906-07 (Where wrong public agency assumes role of lead agency, the entire CEQA process is tainted, compelling invalidation of EIR and a fresh start with the appropriate lead agency). 31 PRC § 21092.1. 32 14 CCR § 15088.5. 33 Mountain Lion Coal. v. Fish & Game Com., 214 Cal. App. 3d 1043, 1052.