Legal Commentary on Planning and Development
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…
An agency’s duty to preserve documents for inclusion in the record of proceedings under CEQA prevails over a local agency’s document retention and destruction policies. Golden Door Properties v. Superior Court (County of San Diego), 52 Cal.App.5th 837 (2020)
In their action challenging an EIR certification, petitioners moved to compel San Diego County to…
Where a petitioner in a CEQA case has elected to prepare the administrative record but unreasonably delays such preparation, the defendant agency may prepare the record itself and be awarded costs for doing so. LandWatch San Luis Obispo Co. v. Cambria Comm. Serv. Dist., 25 Cal. App. 5th 638 (2018).
LandWatch, a nonprofit organization,…
A party against whom summary judgment is entered as a result of attorney neglect may not seek relief under a statute that provides relief from a default judgment or dismissal resulting from attorney neglect. The Urban Wildlands Group, Inc. v. City of Los Angeles, 10 Cal. App. 5th 993 (2017).
The plaintiff challenged the…
The Fifth Appellate District has issued another in a series of decisions regarding administrative records in CEQA cases. The court held that the “common interest doctrine” does not protect otherwise privileged communications shared by a developer and an agency prior to approval of a project because the two cannot be considered to be advancing any …
