Caltrans’s analysis of impacts to redwoods from realignment of a one-mile stretch of Highway 101 has been rejected. The court of appeal ruled that the project EIR both failed to identify any significance threshold for impacts to redwoods and impermissibly labeled mitigation measures as project features. Lotus v. Department of Transportation, No. A137315 (First
Julie Jones
Court Rejects Claim That New General Plan Housing Element Requires New EIR
Affordable housing advocates have lost a claim that Napa’s new General Plan Housing Element required a new environmental impact report. Latinos Unidos de Napa v. City of Napa, No. A134959 (1st Dist., Oct. 10, 2013, publication ordered Nov. 5, 2013). The court upheld the city’s decision that its 2009 Housing Element was not a …
Senate Bill 743: Legislature Sends CEQA Amendments to Governor
Following a week of intense negotiations, the Legislature has sent Governor Brown a set of CEQA amendments. Senate Bill 743 replaces – at least for now — Senate Bill 731, which had become an unwieldy mass of 15 separate CEQA revisions. (See our April 26 post CEQA Modernization? Not really.) Although it adds detailed …
County Can Establish Winery Uses By Right Despite Environmental Impacts
San Diego County’s decision to permit visitor-serving wineries by right has survived CEQA and general plan challenges. San Diego Citizenry Group v. County of San Diego, 219 Cal. App. 4th 1 (2013). Deferring to the county’s decision to encourage such wineries – despite their unavoidable environmental impacts – by eliminating use permit requirements, the …
Faulty Greenhouse Gas Analysis Sinks EIR
An environmental impact report must not only identify a proper significance threshold for a project’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions; it must then correctly apply that threshold. The EIR for a Wal-Mart Supercenter failed this test in Friends of Oroville v. City of Oroville, No. 070448 (3rd Dist., Aug. 19, 2013).
Wal-Mart proposed to replace …
Use Of Future Baseline In CEQA Analysis Approved By California Supreme Court
The California Supreme Court has both resolved a split in the appellate courts and forged new law on the baselines agencies may use to assess projects’ environmental effects under CEQA. Neighbors for Smart Rail v. Exposition Metro Line Construction Authority, Case No. S202828 (Cal. Supreme Court, August 5, 2013).
In an unusual 3-3-1 decision…
City Council’s Interpretation of General Plan Prevails Despite Conflict With Plan’s Land Use Map
A city council has sweeping authority to interpret the city’s general plan. That authority trumped a successful referendum campaign designed to block a residential development project, according to the court’s decision in Orange Citizens for Parks and Recreation v. Superior Court, Case No. G047013 (4th App. Dist., July 10, 2013). The court held that…
CEQA and Land Use Bills — An Update
SB 731 (Steinberg) CEQA Modernization Act of 2013. (Last amended May 24, 2013. Passed to Assembly May 30, 2013)
- Aesthetic Impacts in Transit Priority Areas Not Significant. Bill would provide that aesthetic impacts of a residential, mixed-use residential, or employment center project, as defined, within a “transit priority area,” shall not be considered
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Legislature Winnows CEQA Bills
Out of 26 CEQA bills introduced early this year, eight have met the Legislature’s May 31 deadline to move from the state Senate to the Assembly or vice versa, and therefore are still considered viable. (For more details, and an update on these bills, see our June 14 post). For the most part, these…
CEQ Issues Handbooks on Coordinating NEPA Review with Review Under CEQA and Review Under the Historic Preservation Act
On March 5, 2013, the Council on Environmental Quality released a handbook intended to help agencies and practitioners coordinate environmental reviews under the National Environmental Policy Act with overlapping review requirements under the California Environmental Quality Act. It also released a separate handbook on coordination of review under NEPA and the National Historic Preservation Act.…