Your Resource for What's New in CEQA Law and Litigation
Note: the Supreme Court granted a request for depublication of this opinion on August 22, 2016. See here.
On June 17, 2016, the Fourth Appellate District modified its recently published opinion, People for Proper Planning v. City of Palm Springs. As modified, the opinion now cites to last year’s Supreme Court decision Berkeley…
In Citizens for Environmental Responsibility v. State ex rel., the Third Appellate District affirmed the denial of a CEQA petition relating to the 14th District Agricultural Association’s and its Board of Directors’ (collectively District) use of the Class 23 categorical exemption in approving a small-scale two-day rodeo at an existing Fairground. The case…
In Save Our Big Trees v. City of Santa Cruz, 2015 Cal. App. LEXIS 942, the Sixth Appellate District held that the City of Santa Cruz (City) failed to carry its burden of demonstrating with substantial evidence that the amendment of its Heritage Tree Ordinance and Heritage Tree Removal Resolution (Project) were categorically exempt from…
On September 17, 2015, the California First District Court of Appeal struck another blow to the beleaguered 8 Washington Street Project in Defend Our Waterfront v. California State Lands Commission, 2015 Cal. App. LEXIS 817, when it upheld the trial court’s ruling that a necessary land transfer between the State Lands Commission and the City…
The California Supreme Court has depublished the Fourth Appellate District’s June 17, 2015 opinion in Paulek v. Western Riverside County Regional Conservation (2015) 238 Cal.App.4th 583 (Paulek).
The Paulek opinion erroneously stated that “when determining whether a categorical exemption applies, the question is whether a fair argument has been made that the project…
Following rehearing on its own motion, the Fourth District Court of Appeal again reversed and remanded a case involving the closure of two public schools in the Barstow Unified School District (“BUSD” or “District”). (Save Our Schools v. Barstow Unified School Dist., 2015 Cal.App.LEXIS 779.) The court had previously vacated its July 14,…
The California Fourth District Court of Appeal reversed and remanded a case involving the closure of two public schools in the Barstow Unified School District (BUSD). In Save Our Schools v. Barstow Unified School Dist., 2015 Cal.App.Unpub. LEXIS 4926, Save Our Schools (SOS) sued BUSD over the closure of two schools. BUSD closed the…
In Berkeley Hillside Preservation v. City of Berkeley, (March 2, 2015, S201116) __ Cal.4th __ (Berkeley Hillside), in a Majority Opinion joined by five Justices the California Supreme Court provided long awaited guidance on the standards applicable to both lead agencies and courts tasked with interpreting and applying the “unusual circumstances” exception…
On February 18, 2015, the California Court of Appeal for the Fourth District granted the City of San Diego’s (City) request to publish the recent case CREED-21 v. City of San Diego, 2015 Cal. App. LEXIS 17. In the decision, the appellate court reversed the trial court in large part and denied an injunction…
In an unpublished opinion in CREED-21 v. City of San Diego, the California Fourth District Court of Appeal reversed in large part the trial court decision granting an injunction and other relief for violation of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) relating to emergency repair and subsequent revegetation of a hillside and storm drain…
