In an unpublished decision in Sierra Club v. County of San Diego, 2014 Cal. App. Unpub. LEXIS 7762, the California Court of Appeal for the Fourth District granted a writ of mandate to enforce a mitigation measure in San Diego County’s (County) 2011 general plan update to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the County.

In response to the mandate in AB 32 that the state reduce its GHG emissions to 1990 levels by 2020, the County adopted a series of climate change-related mitigation measures.  One such mitigation measure was CC-1.2, which required the County to prepare a climate action plan (CAP) that included more detailed GHG emissions targets and deadlines to reduce the County’s GHG emissions in accordance with AB 32.

Sierra Club contended the CAP adopted by the County violated the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) by failing to include adequate analysis of the environmental impacts and failing to comply with the requirements of Mitigation Measure CC 1.2. Sierra Club also challenged the County’s related guidelines that permitted projects that fall below a bright line threshold (hereafter “Thresholds Project”) to avoid detailed GHG analysis in future project-level environmental documents. The court found that the County failed to comply with CC-1.2 for three reasons. First, the CAP did not include enforceable GHG emissions as required by CC 1.2. Instead, the County described the emissions reductions strategies as “recommendations.” Second, the CAP did not contain “more detailed deadlines” as required by CC 1.2 and instead included only the final 2020 goal without incremental emissions objectives. The County also failed to cite any specific evidence in the record that people would participate in the programs to achieve the target reductions.

The court also found the County failed to make adequate finding regarding the environmental impact of the CAP and Thresholds project. The County improperly assumed the CAP and Thresholds project was part of the general plan update so the County did not analyze the environmental impacts of the CAP and Thresholds project itself. Because the general plan update’s plan-level EIR did not analyze the CAP and Thresholds project, the court required the County to complete a separate EIR.

The court next concluded the County violated CEQA section 21081.6 by failing to incorporate mitigation measures directly into the CAP. Section 21081.6 requires public agencies to include enforceable mitigation measures directly into the adopted plans.  

Finally, the court held there was no substantial evidence to support the County’s conclusion that a supplemental EIR was not required. The details of the CAP were not available during the completion of the Program EIR for the general plan update. As a result, key elements such as baseline GHG emission levels and monitoring programs were not considered in the Program EIR. Accordingly, the court affirmed the trial court’s decision that a supplemental EIR was required to ascertain the environmental impacts of the CAP and Thresholds project.