The First District Court of Appeal has approved an EIR analyzing a proposed fifty percent increase in density at the Parnassus campus of the University of California, San Francisco. Yerba Buena Neighborhood Consortium, LLC v. Regents of the University of California, 95 Cal.App.5th 779 (2023, petitions for review filed 10/30/2023).
In the five
This case addressed both application of CEQA’s categorical exemption for renovation of historical resources and application of an exception to the exemption that turned on the question whether the project complied with Secretary of Interior standards regarding renovation of historic structures. The court ruled that this issue is to be reviewed under the substantial evidence
A court of appeal has upheld Monterey County’s approvals for a desalination plant, rejecting challengers’ claims that uncertainty regarding the availability of source water for the plant necessitated additional CEQA review. Marina Coast Water District v. County of Monterey, 96 Cal.App.5th 46 (2023).
In 2018, the California Public Utilities Commission, acting as the CEQA
The Third District Court of Appeal has held that Sacramento County’s environmental impact report for a master planned community complied with CEQA’s requirements for analysis of greenhouse gas emissions. Tsakopoulos Investments, LLC v. County of Sacramento, 95 Cal.App.5th 280 (2023). Describing in detail the County’s analysis, the court held that substantial evidence –
The trial court improperly retained jurisdiction of a CEQA challenge after the City of San Diego filed a return to the peremptory writ of mandate confirming that it had rescinded the project approvals and thereby satisfied the terms of the writ. McCann v. City of San Diego, 94 Cal. App. 5th 284 (2023).
This
The Court of Appeal rejected a challenge by two school districts to a specific plan EIR, finding the districts’ claim that the EIR should have analyzed off-site impacts resulting from inadequate school facilities to be speculative. Santa Rita Union School Dist. v. City of Salinas, 94 Cal.App.5th 298 (2023).
The City approved a specific
An environmental impact report need not discuss impacts that are too speculative in nature for proper evaluation or assess economic costs not linked to a physical change in the environment. County of Butte v. Dept. of Water Resources, 90 Cal.App.5th 147 (2023).
In 2008, three local government entities challenged the California Department of Water
The Court of Appeal upheld the City’s determination that compensatory mitigation for the loss of a historic building in the form of funding of other historic preservation was not feasible because there were no other buildings in the downtown areas with the same architectural style, period of significance, and purpose. Preservation Action Council of San
The appellate court invalidated the City’s reliance on CEQA’s Class 32 in-fill exemption to approve construction of a hotel because the project included demolition of affordable housing and thereby conflicted with General Plan policies favoring preservation of such housing. United Neighborhoods for Los Angeles v. City of Los Angeles, 93 Cal.App.5th 1074 (2023).
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The Court of Appeal upheld the City of Newport Beach’s reliance on an EIR addendum to approve a residential project whose impacts had been evaluated in a 2006 Program EIR for a general plan update. Olen Properties Corp. v. City of Newport Beach, 93 Cal. App. 5th 270 (2023).
Olen Properties, the owner of the