News & Analysis as of

Local Ordinance California Environmental Quality Act

Downey Brand LLP

Sixth District Holds CEQA 30-Day Statute of Limitations Triggered by Local Agency’s Definition of “Final” Approval

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In Center for Biological Diversity v. County of San Benito (2024) 104 Cal.App.5th 22, the Court of Appeal held that the statute of limitations for two CEQA challenges did not begin to run until the Board of Supervisors had...more

Perkins Coie

Approval of Class 32 Exemption Invalid Without Analysis of Project Consistency with Redevelopment Plan

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The Court of Appeal held that before issuing a CEQA Class 32 exemption, the City of Los Angeles was required to assess whether the project was consistent not only with the applicable zoning ordinance but also with the area’s...more

Perkins Coie

California Court Upholds CalGEM’s Use of CEQA Categorical Exemption for Approval of Oil Well Conversion Project

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A California Court of Appeal upheld the California Department of Conservation Geologic Energy Management Division’s determination that a project to convert a plugged oil well into a wastewater disposal well fit within the...more

Downey Brand LLP

Project’s Completion Did Not Moot CEQA Claim

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Introduction - On March 29, 2024, the First District Court of Appeal issued its partially published opinion in the case of Vichy Springs Resort, Inc. v. City of Ukiah (2024) 101 Cal.App.5th 46....more

Miller Starr Regalia

First District Holds CEQA Challenge To Shooting Range Project On City-Owned Land In Unincorporated County Was Not Mooted By...

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In a partially published opinion filed March 29, 2024, the First District Court of Appeal (Div. 4) rejected contentions that the pre-judgment completion of construction of a shooting range mooted a CEQA challenge to the...more

Alston & Bird

Land Use Matters December 2023 - CEQA Appellate Decisions & Other Legal Developments

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City of Los Angeles - The Processes and Procedures Ordinance Becomes Operative January 22, 2024 - The city council adopted the Processes and Procedures Ordinance amending the Los Angeles Municipal Code (LAMC) to...more

Allen Matkins

Approved: San Francisco Legislation Intended to Streamline Housing Production

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On December 14, 2023, Mayor Breed approved “Housing Constraints Legislation” passed by the City and County of San Francisco (City) Board of Supervisors, which is intended to streamline housing production, as required by the...more

Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton LLP

Commercial Cannabis Permit Program and Overlay District Statutorily Exempt Under CEQA Guideline Section 15183

On June 13, 2023, the Second Appellate District affirmed the City of Pomona’s use of a statutory exemption for its Commercial Cannabis Overlay Permit Program under California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) Guidelines...more

Meyers Nave

Meyers Nave Secures Victory for City of Oakland as Court of Appeal Upholds EIR for A’s Baseball Stadium Project

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In a lengthy published decision, the Court of Appeal upheld the City of Oakland’s environmental impact report (EIR) for the proposed Oakland A’s MLB stadium and mixed use project, rejecting numerous challenges and affirming...more

Perkins Coie

CEQA Year in Review -- 2022

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The courts issued 16 published CEQA decisions in 2022, continuing a trend of fewer published opinions than the pattern established in earlier years. The only California Supreme Court opinion, County of Butte v. Department of...more

Perkins Coie

Athletic Field Lighting Project Not Categorically Exempt from CEQA

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The First District Court of Appeal overturned the City of San Francisco’s decision that Saint Ignatius High School’s project to install four permanent 90-foot-tall athletic field lights was exempt from CEQA.  Saint Ignatius...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

Perkins Coie

Dam Operations Authorized Under 1954 Statute Potentially Included Protection of Endangered Species.

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The Ninth Circuit held that statutory language defining the scope of operations of Twitchell Dam was sufficiently broad to potentially include releases of water to facilitate migration of Southern California Steelhead to the...more

Perkins Coie

Responsible Agency Under CEQA Must Make Express Findings as to Each Potentially Significant Impact Identified in Lead Agency’s EIR

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The Court of Appeal held that the City of Mount Shasta violated CEQA by approving a wastewater permit for a water bottling plant without making specific findings as to each potentially significant impact identified as...more

Perkins Coie

CEQA Existing Facilities Exemption Inapplicable to Unlined Landfills and Exhaustion of Administrative Remedies not Required Where...

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A California Court of Appeal held that CEQA’s issue exhaustion requirement did not preclude a challenge to Inyo County’s exemption determinations for condemnation proceedings and expanded operation of unlined landfills...more

Holland & Knight LLP

SB 10 to Facilitate Upzonings, But Does Not Include CEQA Exemption for Corresponding Projects

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California Senate Bill (SB) 10, which Gov. Gavin Newsom signed into law on Sept. 16, 2021, and will take effect on Jan. 1, 2022, provides that local agencies may adopt an ordinance to allow up to 10 dwelling units on any...more

Allen Matkins

Can a Responsible Agency Impose Mitigation Measures Not Considered in the Lead Agency’s EIR?

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In Santa Clara Valley Water District v. San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board, No. A157127, 2020 WL 7706795 (Cal. Ct. App. Dec. 29, 2020), the court ruled that CEQA does not constrain an agency’s authority to...more

Perkins Coie

CEQA Year in Review 2020

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A Summary of Published Appellate Opinions Involving the California Environmental Quality Act - Despite relatively few published opinions this year, there were significant appellate court rulings on a range of topics,...more

Perkins Coie

Fifth District Holds Defects in EIR’s Air Quality Impact Analysis Require Decertification of Entire EIR

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On remand from the California Supreme Court’s decision in Sierra Club v. County of Fresno, 6 Cal.5th 502 (2018) (“Friant Ranch I”), a court of appeal has held that CEQA requires full decertification – not partial...more

Perkins Coie

County’s Blanket Classification of All Well Permits As Ministerial Under CEQA Was Improper

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Where a county ordinance allowed for exercise of discretion in some circumstances regarding issuance of well construction permits, such permits could not categorically be classified as ministerial and hence exempt from CEQA...more

Downey Brand LLP

California Supreme Court Throws the Barn Doors Open, Finding That Groundwater Well Permits Aren’t Necessarily Ministerial

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On August 27, 2020, in Protecting Our Water and Environmental Resources v. County of Stanislaus, Case No. S251709 (“Protecting Our Water”), the California Supreme Court held that the County in that instance could not...more

Farella Braun + Martel LLP

Permitting Utility-Scale Battery Energy Storage Projects: Lessons From California

The increasing mandates and incentives for the rapid deployment of energy storage are resulting in a boom in the deployment of utility-scale battery energy storage systems (BESS). In the first installment of our series...more

Downey Brand LLP

Fifth Appellate District Invalidates Kern County Oil and Gas Ordinance

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On Tuesday, February 25, 2020, the Fifth Appellate District invalidated Kern County’s 2015 Oil and Gas Ordinance (the “Ordinance”), which was intended to streamline the permitting process for a variety of oil and gas...more

Best Best & Krieger LLP

PublicCEO: BB&K Municipal Law Team Discusses New Public Agency Laws - Part 2

Land Use, Telecommunications, Environmental and More - As noted in Part I of this two-part series, California lawmakers passed a number of new laws last year that greatly impact how public agencies serve their...more

Perkins Coie

CEQA Year in Review 2019

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A Summary of Published Appellate Opinions Under the California Environmental Quality Act - The year 2019 saw several trailblazing opinions, indicating that courts continue to grapple with some of CEQA’s core policies. The...more

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