In a partially published opinion, the Second District reversed the ruling of the Los Angeles County Superior Court, and affirmed the adequacy of the EIR certified by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW, formerly the California Deptartment of Fish and Game) in 2010, as well as related permits issued to development company Newhall…

In an unpublished opinion, California Clean Energy Committee v. City of Woodland, 2014 Cal. App. Unpub. LEXIS 1481, the Third District Court of Appeal reversed the trial court’s denial of a petition for writ of mandate to vacate the City of Woodland’s certification of an EIR for a regional shopping center.

In 2007, a…

In an unpublished opinion, Salmon Protection and Watershed Network v. County of Marin, 2014 Cal. App. LEXIS 1578, the Court of Appeal, First District, reversed the trial court and granted an environmental group’s petition for a writ of mandate challenging the sufficiency of the EIR for Marin’s Countywide General Plan (CWP). The Court also…

In an unpublished decision, Friends of the Landmark Filbert Cottages v. City and County of San Francisco, 2014 Cal. App. LEXIS 564, the First District Court of Appeal rejected a CEQA challenge to an infill project near San Francisco’s Russian Hill. The court applied CEQA’s 35-day statute of limitations and affirmed that the public…

In Protect Agricultural Land v. Stanislaus Local Agency Formation Commission, 2014 Cal. App. LEXIS 80, the court affirmed the requirement that challenges to annexation and sphere of influence decisions by Local Agency Formation Commissions (LAFCO) must be brought as reverse validation actions.

The case involved the Stanislaus County LAFCO’s approval of an application by…

The United States District Court for the District of Columbia has protected discussions between California’s High Speed Rail Authority (CHSRA) and the Federal Rail Authority (FRA) from a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request filed by Judicial Watch. Judicial Watch v. U.S. Dept. of Trans. (D.D.C. 2013) 950 F. Supp.2d 213. The protected discussions concerned…

In Lotus v. Department of Transportation, 2014 Cal. App. LEXIS 97, the California Court of Appeal, First Appellate District, reversed the trial court’s denial of appellants’ petition for writ of mandate challenging the adequacy of the EIR for a highway realignment project.

The California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) sought to realign and widen portions…

Following the overwhelming majority of courts that have upheld local laws regulating plastic bags, California’s First District Court of Appeal unanimously upheld San Francisco’s ban on plastic bags in Save the Plastic Bag Coalition v. City and County of San Francisco (2013) 222 Cal.App.4th 863.  The court found that the city complied with CEQA in…

On January 28, 2014, the Merced County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved a conditional use permit and certified an environmental impact report (EIR) for a project to construct a 20 megawatt solar photovoltaic electrical generation facility on a 178.3 acre site in the Los Banos area of the County.  It is anticipated that the project…