Well then it would likely be in the same boat as a city, special district or a county. All of which would have to comply with CEQA in the same way as the state. If NCRA was created and owned by the feds you might have a point. I don't see a way that a city, special district or a county owned property (in CA) could be developed by a private company and be exempt from CEQA. As NCRA has already named themselves as "lead agency" in several CEQA processes it will be hard to make the argument that CEQA does not apply to them.