In an unpublished decision, Landwatch San Luis Obispo v. Cambria Community Serv. Dist., 2d Civil No. B229545 (2012), the Court upheld a trial court’s cost award of $14,615.41 to the Cambria Community Service District for time spent preparing the administrative record.  The District initially sought almost $24,000.  In reaching the amount awarded, the trial court denied the majority of the costs claimed for work performed by the District’s general manager, its engineer and its attorney in preparing the transcript and granted the full amount of costs sought for work performed by the District’s clerk and three administrative assistants.

Petitioner appealed arguing that no costs should have been awarded because it elected to prepare the administrative record and the District never informed the Petitioner how much it would cost to prepare the transcripts for the administrative record.   The Court acknowledged that the Petitioner requested the District provide it with a cost estimate to prepare the transcripts.  However, the Court concluded that nothing in CEQA requires the public agency to provide a cost estimate for preparing the record.  The Court also rejected Petitioner’s claim that the costs were not reasonable and necessary.  The Court instead deferred to the trial court’s determination of reasonableness.

Written By: Tina Thomas and Chris Butcher

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