In an unpublished opinion, Save Sunnyvale Parks & Schools v. City of Sunnyvale, 2016 Cal. App. Unpub. LEXIS 1146, the Sixth Appellate District affirmed the trial court’s ruling and rejected challenges to the City’s approval of the sale of the Raynor Activity Center (“RAC”) to Stratford Schools, a private school.

The City had previously declared that the RAC was a surplus property and had begun a competitive bidding process for its sale. Negotiations with Stratford resulted in a proposed agreement to sell the property for $14,050,000, with a joint use agreement that gave Stratford priority use of certain areas in the adjacent, City-owned Raynor Park. The proposed sale agreement required the City to conduct an environmental analysis under CEQA as part of the permitting process. Petitioner Save Sunnyvale Parks (“Petitioner”) sought a writ of mandate to compel the City to rescind the sale and joint use agreements, arguing that the City approved the agreements without first complying with CEQA and that the agreements violated the Public Park Preservation Act of 1971 (“Park Act”).

First, the court held the City did not violate the Park Act, which requires that all the funds received by a local government from the sale of park land be used to obtain or provide substitute park land and facilities. The court held that under the “home rule” doctrine, the Park Act did not apply to a charter city like Sunnyvale because the preservation of public parks is not a matter of statewide concern.

Next, the court rejected Petitioner’s claim that the City approved the sale and joint use agreements before conducting CEQA review in violation of the principles articulated in Save Tara v. City of West Hollywood (2008) 45 Cal.4th 116. The court found that Petitioner’s Save Tara claim was barred because it had not satisfied the “issue exhaustion requirement” of Public Resources Code section 21177(a), which prohibits a legal action from being commenced unless the grounds for noncompliance were presented to the public agency during the administrative process. The court found that the public comments submitted were far too general to satisfy the issue exhaustion requirement, and that the notices or staff reports prepared by the City sufficiently notified the public of the City’s conclusions regarding the timing of CEQA review and the proposed agreements.

Finally, the court rejected Petitioner’s claim that the issue exhaustion requirement impermissibly infringed its rights to petition the government for redress of grievances as guaranteed in California Constitution Article I, § 3. The court held that the right to petition does not excuse compliance with the issue exhaustion requirement and noted that Petitioner was not denied access to the courts in this case––its claims were considered by both the superior and appellate court.