Category: Administrative Record

Subscribe to Administrative Record RSS Feed

Agency Email Correspondence Must be Retained Under CEQA, Appeals Court Holds

By Brenda C. Bass and Christian L. Marsh on Posted in Administrative Record, Legislation
In a ruling that should send shivers up the spine of any public agency in California needing to comply with the California Environmental Quality Act (“CEQA”), the Fourth District Court of Appeal on July 30 held that any email correspondence related to a project and its compliance with CEQA must be retained as part of … Continue Reading

Appeals Court Finds that EIR for Planned Los Angeles Railyard for Storage and Transfer of Goods Failed to Sufficiently Consider Air Quality Impacts

By Patrick F. Veasy on Posted in Administrative Record, CEQA Guidelines, Environmental Impact Report (EIR), General, Impact Analysis, Legislation, Planning and Zoning
On January 12, 2018, the First Appellate District held that the California Attorney General need not exhaust administrative remedies in order to contest the adequacy of Environmental Impact Reports (EIRs) under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), as is normally required of third-party challengers under Section 21177.  City of Long Beach v. City of Los … Continue Reading

Second District Denies Mandatory Relief from Adverse Judgment to Plaintiff Whose Counsel Failed to Timely Lodge Administrative Record

By Donald E. Sobelman on Posted in Administrative Record, General
On April 13, the Second Appellate District disapproved two of its prior decisions that had expansively interpreted the availability of mandatory relief from default or dismissal under Code of Civil Procedure section 473(b). In The Urban Wildlands Group, Inc. v. City of Los Angeles, the court held that this mandatory relief provision did not apply … Continue Reading

CEQA Implications of California Supreme Court Decision Finding Public Officials’ and Employees’ Personal Accounts Do Not Escape Reach of Public Records Act

By Rebecca R. A. Smith and Arielle O. Harris on Posted in Administrative Record
On March 2, 2017, the California Supreme Court ruled in City of San Jose v. Superior Court that where a public employee uses a personal email account or texts to communicate about the conduct of public business, those writings may be subject to disclosure under the California Public Records Act (“PRA”). While resolving one long-debated … Continue Reading
CEQA Chronicles
LexBlog