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Appeals California Environmental Quality Act Environmental Impact Report (EIR)

Perkins Coie

Petitioners’ Election to Prepare Record Does Not Preclude Recovery of Record Preparation Costs by Prevailing Public Agency

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The Third District Court of Appeal held that it was proper to award respondents costs for the preparation of CEQA administrative record documents as the prevailing party, even though petitioners had elected to prepare the...more

Perkins Coie

CEQA Statute of Limitations Not Triggered by Planning Commission NOD While Appeal to Board of Supervisors Was Pending

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A Court of Appeal held that the CEQA statute of limitations period does not begin to run after the filing of an initial notice of determination if the project is appealed. Central for Biological Diversity v. County of San...more

Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton LLP

A Win for Consistency Evaluations Under CEQA Guidelines 15183: Court Rules that Public Controversy is not a Basis for Additional...

In its recent decision in Hilltop Group Inc. v. County of San Diego, California’s Fourth District Court of Appeal issued a number of holdings that resulted in a strong ruling in support of streamlined environmental review for...more

Meyers Nave

Court of Appeal Confirms (Again) that CEQA Statute of Limitations Runs from the First Project Approval

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The Second District Court of Appeal confirmed again that the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) favors finality in rejecting a challenge to a subsequent project approval for a 42-single family home project in Los...more

Downey Brand LLP

Court of Appeal Finds Substantial Evidence Supports City’s Use of Statutory Exemption to Approve a Zoning Overlay District For...

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In Lucas v. City of Pomona (2023) 92 Cal.App.5th 508, the Second District of the Court of Appeal affirmed the trial court’s decision that the City of Pomona’s (“City”) application of the statutory exemption under CEQA...more

Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton LLP

California Court Holds Proposed Ballot Measure Excluding Community Plan Area from Height Limit Is Not a “Later Activity” For...

In late June, California’s Fourth District Court of Appeal upheld a Superior Court decision in Save Our Access v. City of San Diego, providing clarity for determining when a “later activity” is beyond the scope of an existing...more

Perkins Coie

Compensatory Mitigation Infeasible for Loss of Historic Building

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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...more

Meyers Nave

Meyers Nave Secures Victory for City of Oakland as Court of Appeal Upholds EIR for A’s Baseball Stadium Project

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In a lengthy published decision, the Court of Appeal upheld the City of Oakland’s environmental impact report (EIR) for the proposed Oakland A’s MLB stadium and mixed use project, rejecting numerous challenges and affirming...more

Perkins Coie

General Request for EIR Insufficient to Exhaust Administrative Remedies When Challenging Reliance on Categorical Exemption

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Plaintiff did not exhaust administrative remedies when challenging the City’s approval of a homeowner’s development project on the ground that a Class 1 categorical exemption was inapplicable. Arcadians for Environmental...more

Perkins Coie

CEQA Challenges to EIR’s Biological and Emergency Evacuation Analyses Rejected

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Introduction: Defining Interprofessional Consultation In a January 5, 2023, letter to state health officials, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (“CMS”) clarified a Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program...more

Perkins Coie

Responsible Agency Under CEQA Must Make Express Findings as to Each Potentially Significant Impact Identified in Lead Agency’s EIR

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The Court of Appeal held that the City of Mount Shasta violated CEQA by approving a wastewater permit for a water bottling plant without making specific findings as to each potentially significant impact identified as...more

Perkins Coie

EIR Recirculation Not Required Where Final Version of Approved Project Was Not Specifically Evaluated in EIR

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The Second District Court of Appeal held that: (1) despite revisions to a mixed-use development project, the project description in the EIR was “accurate, stable, and finite;” (2) an opportunity for public comment on the...more

Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton LLP

Court of Appeal Holds No-Project Alternative Analysis May Mean More When Conversation is an Option and Reinforces Low Barrier to...

In Save the Hill Group v. City of Livermore et al., the First District Court of Appeal (Div. 5) reversed and remanded the superior court’s decision to uphold the reissued final environmental impact report (RFEIR) for a...more

Perkins Coie

EIR For Martis Valley Project Near Lake Tahoe Rejected on Four Grounds But Wildfire Evacuation Analysis Complied with CEQA

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In a lengthy opinion tackling several of CEQA’s hot topics, a court of appeal has rejected the EIR for the Martis Valley West project, finding its Lake Tahoe water quality analysis, GHG and traffic mitigation measures, and...more

Miller Starr Regalia

First District Holds EIR’s Analysis of “No Project” Alternative To City of Livermore Residential Development Violated CEQA By...

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In a published decision filed March 30, 2022, the First District Court of Appeal (Division 5) reversed a trial court judgment upholding the reissued final environmental impact report (“RFEIR”) for a 44-single family residence...more

Buchalter

UC Berkeley Student Enrollment Crisis Inspires Legislative Push to Change CEQA Requirements

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On February 15, California’s preeminent institution of higher education, UC Berkeley (“UCB”), began emailing student applicants that UCB may be forced to withdraw admissions offers as a result of a recent California Court of...more

Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton LLP

Petitioners Failed to Show Subdivision Consistent With a Specific Plan EIR Was Outside the Scope of a Statutory Exemption

In Citizens’ Committee to Complete the Refuge et al. v. City of Newark et al., the First District Court of Appeal (Div. 4) found the California Environmental Quality Act did not require subsequent or supplemental...more

Perkins Coie

No Further Environmental Review Needed for Subdivision That Was Consistent with Approved Specific Plan

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The Court of Appeal found that a development project that was consistent with a previously approved specific plan was not required to prepare a new EIR because no changes significantly increased impacts on endangered species....more

Miller Starr Regalia

Third District Rejects CEQA Challenges To El Dorado Irrigation District Ditch Piping Project, Holds EIR’s Project Description And...

Miller Starr Regalia on

In an opinion filed January 28, and later certified for publication on February 16, 2022, the Third District Court of Appeal affirmed a judgment denying a petition for writ of mandate that challenged on CEQA grounds the El...more

Miller Starr Regalia

Third District Addresses Significant CEQA Issues In Mixed Decision On Placer County’s EIR For Specific Plan/Rezoning Allowing...

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In a sprawling, 123-page published opinion filed on February 14, 2022, the Third District Court of Appeal affirmed in part, and reversed in part, judgments in consolidated CEQA actions challenging Placer County’s EIR for its...more

Perkins Coie

CEQA Year in Review 2021

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A Summary of Published Appellate Opinions Under the California Environmental Quality Act - Introduction - The courts issued relatively few published CEQA decisions in 2021, with no California Supreme Court activity and...more

Perkins Coie

State Water Board Registrations of Small Water Diversions Are Ministerial and Exempt from CEQA

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The State Water Resources Control Board’s registrations of small water diversions are ministerial projects and hence exempt from CEQA. As such, allegedly erroneous registrations cannot be challenged under CEQA. Mission Peak...more

Perkins Coie

Court Upholds Infill Development Categorical Exemption for Gas Station in Existing Shopping Center

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In Protect Tustin Ranch v. City of Tustin, 70 Cal. App. 5th 951 (2021), the court of appeal upheld a city’s reliance on the infill development categorical exemption under CEQA for a new gas station in an existing shopping...more

Downey Brand LLP

Poseidon’s Desalination Plant’s Supplemental EIR Holds Water According to the Court of Appeal

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In California Coastkeeper v. State Lands Commission, the Third District Court of Appeal upheld the State Lands Commission’s decision to prepare a supplemental environmental impact report (EIR) for a desalination plant in...more

Downey Brand LLP

Properly Posting Notice of Determination Triggers Short CEQA Statute of Limitations Despite Not Providing the Notice to Petitioner...

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Published on February 9, 2021, the Court of Appeal in Organizacion Comunidad de Alviso v. City of San Jose held that the City of San Jose’s (“City’s”) posting of a second, revised Notice of Determination (“NOD”) adequately...more

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