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Categorical Exemptions California Environmental Quality Act

Downey Brand LLP

Court Finds Use of Addendum Improper as Project’s GHG Emissions Likely Outside the Scope of Prior Programmatic EIR and Unusual...

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In IBC Business Owners for Sensible Development v. City of Irvine et al. (Feb. 6 2023, Case No. G060850) ___ Cal.App.5th ___, the Fourth District Court of Appeal held that the City of Irvine (“City”) violated CEQA when it...more

Perkins Coie

CEQA Categorical Exemption Must Be Agendized under Brown Act

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The City of Thousand Oaks violated the Ralph M. Brown Act by adopting a CEQA exemption without having listed the exemption as an item on its agenda for at least 72 hours before the meeting. G.I. Industries v. City of Thousand...more

Downey Brand LLP

First District Finds Petitioner Failed to Exhaust Administrative Remedies in CEQA Challenge to Removal of Controversial Sculpture

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In an opinion filed on February 1, 2021, the First Appellate District in Schmid v. City and County of San Francisco found that petitioners challenging the City of San Francisco’s decision to remove a controversial sculpture...more

Downey Brand LLP

First District Rejects “Location Exception” for Project in Earthquake Fault and Landslide Areas and Affirms Class 3 Exemption for...

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In Berkeley Hills Watershed Coalition v. City of Berkeley (2019) 31 Cal.App.5th 880 [certified for partial publication], the Court of the Appeal for the First District affirmed that the construction of three new single-family...more

Perkins Coie

Court of Appeal Holds CEQA Review Is Not Required for Project That Is Only Subject to Design Review

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The court of appeal held that the City of St. Helena did not violate CEQA by approving a demolition permit and design review for a multi-family residential project without preparing an environmental impact report. McCorkle...more

Downey Brand LLP

Court of Appeal Finds No Discretionary Action in St. Helena Multi-family Dwelling Development

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On December 18, 2018, the First Appellate District, in McCorkle v. St. Helena (A153238), affirmed the trial court’s denial of a Petition for Writ of Mandate challenging the City of St. Helena’s approval of a multi-dwelling...more

Perkins Coie

Seven-Year Extension of Diablo Canyon Lease Held Exempt from CEQA

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A court of appeal has rejected CEQA and public trust challenges to a State Lands Commission lease extension allowing the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant to continue operating through 2025. World Business Academy v....more

Perkins Coie

Categorical Exemptions For Telegraph Hill Residential Project Upheld

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In Protect Telegraph Hill v. City and County of San Francisco (2017) 16 Cal.App.5th 261, the First District Court of Appeal rejected a series of CEQA challenges to San Francisco’s approval of a conditional use permit for the...more

Perkins Coie

Court Rejects Claim That Clinic Protests Might Cause Significant Environmental Impacts

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A court of appeal has ruled that opponents of a new Planned Parenthood clinic did not establish a fair argument that anti-clinic protests might cause significant environmental effects. Therefore, the City of South San...more

Holland & Knight LLP

Court Upholds San Francisco's CEQA Exemption for Telegraph Hill Project

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In Protect Telegraph Hill v. City and County of San Francisco (Sept. 14, 2017 Slip Opinion A148544, unpublished), the First District Court of Appeal upheld the City of San Francisco's determination that rehabilitation of a...more

Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, LLP

Real Estate and Land Use - December 2015

Not Your First Rodeo—CEQA Exemption for Rodeo Event Upheld - Citizens for Environmental Responsibility v. State of California - Why It Matters: The Third District Court of Appeal upheld the use of a categorical...more

Alston & Bird

Land Use Matters: Alston & Bird LLP, October 2015

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At its October 27, 2015, meeting, the Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to create a new dedicated Affordable Housing Program budget unit and approved setting aside $100 million for the creation and operation of both...more

Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, LLP

Real Estate and Land Use - September 2015 #2

Use It or Lose It: San Clemente Required to Refund $10 Million in Unused Impact Fees: Walker v. City of San Clemente (August 28, 2015, G050552) - Why It Matters: In a strict reading of a local agency’s...more

Alston & Bird

Land Use Matters: Alston & Bird LLP, September 2015

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The 1st District Court of Appeal invalidated the use of a statutory exemption applicable to the State Lands Commission’s (SLC) approval of a land exchange. The land exchange related to the 8 Washington Street Project, which...more

Miller Starr Regalia

Back To The Chalk Board: School District’s Math Fails To Justify CEQA Categorical Exemption For School Closures

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In a published opinion filed September 2, 2015, the Fourth District Court of Appeal (Division 2) reversed the trial court’s judgment denying a writ petition challenging a school district’s determination that its closure of...more

Miller Starr Regalia

CEQA Categorical Exemption Case Opinion Ordered Slightly Modified By Supreme Court; Berkeley Hillside Preservation Judgment Is...

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On May 27, 2015, the California Supreme Court filed a 4-page order modifying portions of the majority and concurring opinions previously filed March 2, 2015, in Berkeley Hillside Preservation v. City of Berkeley (2015) 60...more

Holland & Knight LLP

CEQA Judicial Outcomes: Fifteen Years of Reported California Appellate and Supreme Court Decisions

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This report analyzes all published opinions from 1997 through 2012 litigated to the California Court of Appeal or the California Supreme Court concerning the analytical validity of an Environmental Impact Report (EIR) or...more

Miller Starr Regalia

Work Done Under Unchallenged CEQA Emergency Exemption Held Part Of Existing Environment Baseline In Subsequent CEQA Challenge To...

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In a decision filed January 29, and belatedly ordered published on February 18, 2015, the Fourth District Court of Appeal rejected numerous CEQA (and other) challenges to the City of San Diego’s regular, after-the-fact...more

Holland & Knight LLP

California Supreme Court Issues CEQA Ruling Regarding Categorical Exemptions - The Practical Result of the Court's Decision Is...

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The California Supreme Court issued its opinion in Berkeley Hillside Preservation v. City of Berkeley (Case No. S201116), overturning the Court of Appeal and charting a course for the future application of categorical...more

Miller Starr Regalia

California Supreme Court Construes CEQA’s “Unusual Circumstances” Exception to Categorical Exemptions in Berkeley Hillside...

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In a 46-page majority opinion written by Justice Chin and joined by four other justices, punctuated by an 18-page concurring opinion (by Justice Liu, joined by Justice Werdegar) which reads like a dissent, the California...more

Beveridge & Diamond PC

Big House CEQA Exemption on Firm Foundation

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The Berkeley Hillside Preservation association wasn’t thrilled with a new neighbor’s plans to demolish an existing house and build a 6,478-square-foot house with an attached 3,394-square-foot 10-car garage on a slope in the...more

Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton LLP

California Supreme Court Announces New Test for CEQA “Unusual Circumstances” Exception

Berkeley Hillside Preservation v. City of Berkeley (2015) ___ Cal.4th ___, Case No. S201116 - This week the California Supreme Court issued its long-awaited decision in the Berkeley Hillside case, which considered...more

Morrison & Foerster LLP

It’s Not Unusual: California Supreme Court Declines to Expand “Unusual Circumstances” Exception to CEQA Categorical Exemptions

In an important and highly anticipated decision under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), the California Supreme Court overturned a Court of Appeal’s decision that would have severely limited public agencies’...more

Nossaman LLP

California Supreme Court Establishes the Standard of Review for the Unusual Circumstances Exception to CEQA Categorical Exemptions...

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Breathing life into the use of CEQA categorical exemptions, on March 2, 2015, the California Supreme Court held that a reasonable possibility that a project may result in significant effects on the environment alone is not...more

Holland & Knight LLP

Judicial Review Of CEQA Categorical Exemptions From 1997-Present

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This report reviews all California Court of Appeal and Supreme Court decisions that have analyzed categorical exemptions under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) from 1997 through the present. This research was...more

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