Legal Commentary on Planning and Development
The U.S. Supreme Court has reversed a Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals opinion that the flow of polluted water from a concrete channel to an unlined section of the same river constituted a “discharge of pollutants.” Los Angeles County Flood Control Dist. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc.
Environmental organizations sued the Los Angeles County…
A water replenishment district’s declaration of a water emergency was not subject to CEQA because the declaration itself had no environmental impact, it was authorized under the terms of a judgment imposing a physical solution on the groundwater basin, and the district had no discretion to alter the terms of the judgment which specify the…
In Habitat and Watershed Caretakers v. City of Santa Cruz, the court of appeal set aside the EIR for long-term development of the U.C. Santa Cruz campus.
The city and the University of California had settled litigation challenging the University’s development plan. A key provision of the agreement required the city to seek Local…
After wading through a detailed discussion relating to biological impacts (see Perkins Coie Update), the court in Preserve Wild Santee v. City of Santee dove into issues surrounding an EIR’s analysis of water supplies. The court found the EIR invalid in part because it failed to consider the uncertainty of State Water Project water…
In a case packed with hot-button issues — CEQA exemptions, water supply impacts, climate change, LAFCO regulation of land uses, and preemption of state law on tribal lands — a court of appeal has ruled that the El Dorado Irrigation District erred in approving an agreement to supply water to a tribal casino.
Background. In…
