In Saltonstall v. City of Sacramento, 2015 Cal. App. LEXIS 150, the California Third District Court of Appeal affirmed the trial court’s denial of a writ of mandate challenging the environmental impact report (EIR) for an arena in downtown Sacramento (arena project) and held the City of Sacramento (City) did not prematurely commit itself to the downtown arena project before completing the EIR.
The case is the second time the Third District Court of Appeal ruled on the arena project in three months. (Summary of Saltonstall I by the Thomas Law Group available here: https://thomaslaw455.wpengine.com/appellate-court-upholds-ceqa-amendments-streamlining-approval-sacramento-arena-project/) In that case, the court held the amendments to the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) streamlining the review of the arena project did not violate the constitutional separation of powers.
In the instant case, the court first rejected petitioners’ argument that the City violated CEQA by committing itself to the arena before completing the proper environmental review. The court explained the City’s nonbinding term sheet with the arena project developer expressly provided that all proposed terms of the development were subject to CEQA review. Also, the exercise of eminent domain to secure a site for the arena project did not constitute a commitment to the ultimate project site requiring prior CEQA review. The court reasoned that together CEQA Guidelines section 15004, which permits entering into land acquisition agreements as long as the public agency conditions the future use of the site on CEQA compliance, and Public Resources Code section 21168.6.6, which expressly authorized the City to prosecute the eminent domain action at issue prior to completing CEQA environmental review, demonstrated the City’s eminent domain action did not improperly commit it to the arena project.
Next, the court held the EIR was not deficient for failing to include a remodel of the City’s current basketball arena as a project alternative. The City’s objectives for the arena project included the revitalization of downtown and building a state-of-the-art entertainment venue. Even if remodeling the existing arena might be environmentally superior, the court concluded a remodeled arena would not meet the City’s downtown redevelopment objectives.
The court also rejected petitioners’ other challenges to the arena project. The court held substantial evidence supported the City’s traffic analysis conclusions and the City was under no obligation to conduct further studies simply because petitioners desired a more thorough review. The court also rejected petitioners’ argument that the EIR was deficient for not including an analysis of crowd safety impacts. The court reasoned CEQA was limited to impacts to the physical environment, which did not include crowd safety. Finally, the court stated petitioners forfeited their request to introduce certain material into the administrative record by failing to offer any meaningful analysis on the issue.
KEY POINT
The CEQA objectives for a project are critical when courts review the alternatives analysis in an EIR. Because the City established its objectives as requiring revitalization of downtown, other alternatives outside of the downtown area that may have had less of an environmental impact could properly be rejected.