CEQA statute of limitations calculator: NOD, NOE and 180-day deadlines

The deadlines it applies

A local agency’s notices go to the county clerk and the State Clearinghouse (PRC § 21152); a state agency’s go to the Office of Land Use and Climate Innovation, which the code still calls the Office of Planning and Research (PRC § 21108). A Notice of Exemption is optional, and must be filed after the project is approved (Guidelines § 15062(a), (b)).

How the days are counted

California’s general rule leaves out the first day and includes the last (Code Civ. Proc. § 12). If the last day is a Saturday, a Sunday or a judicial holiday, the period runs to the next day that is not one (§ 12a, § 135).

Judicial holidays are not the same list as state holidays. The day after Thanksgiving is one; Lunar New Year, Diwali, Genocide Remembrance Day, Admission Day and Columbus Day are not (§ 135). The calculator uses the courts’ published schedule for 2026 and 2027. For any other year it handles weekends only and says so.

• Notice of Determination filed June 3, 2026

  30 days after Wednesday, June 3, 2026 is Friday, July 3, 2026. July 3 is a court holiday (Independence Day, observed), July 4 is a Saturday and July 5 is a Sunday, so the last day moves to Monday, July 6, 2026.

• Notice of Exemption filed October 7, 2026

  35 days after Wednesday, October 7, 2026 is Wednesday, November 11, 2026. November 11 is a court holiday (Veterans Day), so the last day moves to Thursday, November 12, 2026.

• Approved February 12, 2026, with no notice filed

  180 days after Thursday, February 12, 2026 is Tuesday, August 11, 2026.

What this calculator cannot tell you

CEQA deadlines are short and courts enforce them. These are the places where a date cannot be computed from the calendar alone. Only CEQA’s own limits are computed here; a claim under another statute has its own.

• A clerk and a Clearinghouse filing on different days

  A local agency must file with both the county clerk and the State Clearinghouse (PRC § 21152(a), (b)). The limit runs from the date of filing, but the statute does not say which filing counts if the dates differ, and we found no court decision on it. If you may sue, count from the earlier date. If you are relying on the period having ended, count from the later one.

• Filing versus posting

  The statute counts from filing (PRC § 21167). The Guidelines say the filing and the posting together start the 30 or 35 days (§ 15112(c), § 15062(d), § 15075(g), § 15094(g)). In Latinos Unidos de Napa v. City of Napa, the Court of Appeal counted from the day after a Notice of Determination was first posted, rejected the argument that filing alone started the period, and applied 180 days because the notice came down on the morning of the 30th day (Manatt’s summary). So enter the date a local notice was first posted, and check that it stayed up.

• An approval still open to a local appeal

  A Notice of Determination filed before an approval is final may not start the 30 days. In Center for Biological Diversity v. County of San Benito, a notice filed after a planning commission’s approval did not count, because the county code made an appealed approval not final until the board acted. The period ran from the notice filed after the board’s decision. Check your agency’s own rules on finality.

• Whether a notice was good enough

  Flaws in the decision behind a facially valid, properly filed Notice of Exemption do not stop the 35 days (Stockton Citizens), but a notice filed before the project is approved does not start them (Coalition for Clean Air).

• Which claims the 30 days cover

  Once a Notice of Determination is filed, 30 days applies to all CEQA challenges to the decision it announces, including a claim that no environmental review was done (Green Foothills).

• A project that changes after approval

  Where a project under way differs substantially from the one the EIR described and the public had no notice, suit may be filed within 180 days of when the plaintiff knew or should have known of the difference (Costa Mesa). That turns on the facts, so the calculator does not attempt it.

• Days your office was closed

  A day counts as a holiday if the public office involved was closed for the whole of it (Code Civ. Proc. § 12b). The calculator cannot know that for your court or clerk.

• Farmworkers Day in 2027

  The courts’ schedule lists it on Friday, April 9, 2027, while AB 2156 designates March 31. We could not reconcile the two, so neither date moves a deadline, and a result landing on either one is flagged. Moving it wrongly would make the date a day late.

• Day one of a review period

  For state agency review, the date the Clearinghouse distributes the document is day one (PRC § 21091(c)(2)). The general rule leaves the first day out. The calculator gives the later date, which meets the minimum either way, and shows the other. Agencies do count both ways: of the 217 mitigated negative declarations with both dates in CEQAnet received July through September 2026, 56 listed a public review of 29 days from start to end, 53 of 30 and 49 of 31.

• Proposition 45 and this year’s bills

  Proposition 45, on the November 3, 2026 ballot, would have changed CEQA for certain projects, including a 270-day limit for courts to rule on CEQA suits. When we last read the KQED results, the race had been called with 55.8% voting no and 76.5% of votes counted, so it appears to have failed, but the result was not yet certified. The calculator applies the law without it. We found no 2026 bill changing the limits in PRC §§ 21152 or 21167, but could not confirm that on the Legislature’s own site.