On January 4, 2016, the Third Appellate District published its opinion in North Coast Rivers Alliance v. Kawamura, 2015 Cal. App. LEXIS 1178. In the opinion, the court found a programmatic EIR for a program to deal with the invasive light brown apple moth to be inadequate.  Because of the EIR’s “artificially narrow” project…

In an unpublished opinion, Cal. Clean Energy Comm. V. County of Placer, 2015 Cal. App. Unpub. LEXIS 9360, the Third Appellate District granted California Clean Energy Committee’s (Clean Energy) petition for writ of mandate challenging the County of Placer’s (County) approval of a proposal to expand an existing ski resort on the West Shore of…

In an unpublished opinion, Save Westwood Village v. Regents of the University of California, 2015 Cal. App. Unpub. LEXIS 9281, the Second Appellate District affirmed the trial court’s rulings and rejected several CEQA challenges to the UC Regents’ approval of the Meyer and Renee Luskin Conference and Guest Center on the UCLA campus. As…

On December 17, 2015, the Supreme Court filed a unanimous opinion in California Building Industry Association v. Bay Area Air Quality Management District (S213478). Interestingly, this is the first CEQA opinion to be drafted by the recently appointed Justice Cuéllar. This case pertains to the adoption of thresholds of significance for greenhouse gas emissions and…

On November 30, 2015, the Supreme Court issued its decision in Center for Biological Diversity v. California Department of Fish and Wildlife, 2015 Cal. LEXIS 1043, addressing Newhall Ranch, a proposed 12,000 acre development project. The Newhall Ranch Specific Plan area, located in northwestern Los Angeles County in a portion of the Santa Clara…

In an unpublished opinion, North Coast Rivers Alliance v. Kawamura, 2015 Cal. App. Unpub. LEXIS 8760, the Third Appellate District reversed the trial court’s rulings and found a programmatic EIR certified by California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) for a seven-year program to deal with the invasive light brown apple moth (LBAM) to…

In an unpublished opinion, City of Milpitas v. City of San Jose, 2015 Cal. App. Unpub. LEXIS 8610, the Sixth Appellate District upheld the City of San Jose’s Environmental Impact Report (EIR) prepared for the Newby Island Sanitary Landfill and Recyclery. The programmatic EIR assessed the impacts of: (1) increasing the maximum elevation of the…

In its 2012 opinion, City of Hayward v. Board of Trustees of the California State University, 204 Cal.App.4th 446, the First District concluded that the EIR for an expansion of the California State University East Bay campus was adequate in all respects except for its analysis of parkland impacts.  While the opinion also discussed…

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 San Francisco Baykeeper Inc. v. California State Lands Commission, 2015 Cal. App. LEXIS 1024, the First Appellate District rejected several CEQA challenges to the California State Lands Commission (SLC)’s approval of 10-year sand mining leases, but reversed the trial court on this issue of whether SLC failed to properly consider the public trust…