CEQA Portal Updates: First Quarter 2022 Published CEQA Cases

The following is a listing of published cases that are available for review on the AEP CEQA Portal for the first quarter of 2022.

PUBLISHED CEQA CASES

Ocean Street Extension Neighborhood Association v. City of Santa Cruz (Jan. 13, 2022) Cal.App.5th
The Fourth District Court of Appeal rejected a CEQA challenge to a multifamily project in Santa Cruz. The project site consists of a vacant parcel, a portion of which has slopes ranging from 15 to 30 percent. The case addresses proper mitigation approaches for biological resources impacts, project objectives, identifies approaches to streamline the EIR preparation process, and addresses the evaluation of water supply impacts during drought conditions.

Citizens’ Committee to Complete the Refuge, et al. v. City of Newark et al. (Jan. 25, 2022) Cal.App.5th
The First District Court of Appeal affirmed a judgment upholding the City of Newark’s use of the CEQA exemption in Government Code Section 65457 for a 469-lot residential subdivision relying on a previously certified specific plan EIR. The Court reviewed impact concerns regarding harvest mouse and sea level rise related to legal principles governing programmatic analysis, the Government Code Section 65457 exemption, and CEQA’s subsequent review rules under Public Resources Code Section 21166.

League to Save Lake Tahoe Mountain Area Preservation Foundation et al. v. County of Placer et al. (Feb. 14, 2022) Cal.App.5th
The Third District Court of Appeal affirmed in part, and reversed in part, lower court decision on CEQA actions challenging Placer County’s EIR for its approval of a specific plan and rezoning to permit residential and commercial development. The case provides guidance on emergency response/evacuation plan impact analysis. Other issues addressed in the decision include VMT, water quality impacts to Lake Tahoe, recirculation of an EIR, greenhouse gas mitigation, cumulative impacts to forest resources, and energy impacts.

Save the El Dorado Canal v. El Dorado Irrigation District et al. (Feb. 16, 2022) Cal.App.5th
The Third District Court of Appeal upholds an EIR’s project description and analysis of biological resource, hydrology, and wildfire impacts in the El Dorado Irrigation District’s EIR for the Upper Main Ditch Piping Project.

Buena Vista Water Storage District v. Kern Water Bank Authority (Mar. 22, 2022) Cal.App.5th
The Second District Court of Appeal reversed the trial court’s judgment invalidating the Kern Water Bank Authority’s EIR and approval of its own project to divert unappropriated Kern River waters in certain wet years to recharge its Kern Water Bank. In upholding the authority’s EIR and reinstating its project approval, the Court addressed CEQA project description, baseline, and impact analysis issues in the context of a water diversion and recharge project involving excess floodwaters from the not fully appropriated Kern River.

Save the Hill Group v. City of Livermore (Lafferty Communities, Inc., Real Party in Interest) (Mar. 30, 2022) Cal.App.5th
The First District Court of Appeal reversed a trial court judgment upholding the Reissued Final EIR for a 44-unit single-family residential project on a unique species- and habitat-rich 32-acre site in Livermore’s Garaventa Hills area. Both the trial court and the Court of Appeal agreed that the Reissued Final EIR’s analysis of the “no project” alternative was substantively inadequate because it lacked information about the feasibility of purchase and preservation options that was necessary for the City Council to make an informed, reasoned decision. However, the Court of Appeal disagreed with the trial court’s conclusion that the petitioner/appellant Save the Hill Group’s failure to exhaust on this issue barred judicial consideration of it. The Court of Appeal rejected the appellant’s remaining arguments that the analysis and mitigation of the project’s vernal pool fairy shrimp and wetlands impacts were inadequate and that its identified compensatory mitigation for permanent sensitive habitat loss was inadequate.