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Real Estate Development California Environmental Quality Act Appeals

Downey Brand LLP

Indispensable Party: First District Rules Petitioner’s Failure to Join Real Party in Interest Necessitates Dismissal of Action

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In Citizens for a Better Eureka v. City of Eureka (2025) __ Cal. App. 5th __, the First District Court of Appeal affirmed a judgment dismissing a CEQA action that challenged an approval for the redevelopment of a City of...more

Miller Starr Regalia

First District Affirms Judgment Dismissing CEQA Action Based On Petitioner’s Failure To Join Indispensable Real Party Developer...

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In an opinion filed May 14, and later ordered published on June 11, 2025, the First District Court of Appeal (Div. 3) affirmed a judgment dismissing a CEQA action challenging an approval for a City parking lot...more

Miller Starr Regalia

Third District Holds County Could Require Supplemental Environmental Information From Grading Permit Applicant As Condition of...

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Like a gift to land use lawyers that never stops giving, the strange and wondrous interrelationship between CEQA and the Permit Streamlining Act (“PSA”; Gov. Code, § 65920 et seq) continues to inspire litigation and require...more

Perkins Coie

VMT Thresholds Must Be Based on Substantial Evidence Specific to Local Conditions

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The County of San Diego’s thresholds for exempting certain projects from vehicle miles traveled (VMT) analysis were not supported by substantial evidence showing they were appropriate specifically for the County. Cleveland...more

Alston & Bird

Land Use Matters | May 2025 | CEQA Appellate Decisions & Other Legal Developments

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City of Los Angeles - Expedited and Streamlined Review Process for Community Rebuilding - On March 18, 2025, Mayor Karen Bass issued Revised Emergency Executive Order No. 1 (EO 1) directing the Department of City Planning,...more

Downey Brand LLP

Are Your CEQA Thresholds Supported by Substantial Evidence? Fourth District Rules San Diego County’s Thresholds of Significance...

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In Cleveland National Forest Foundation v. County of San Diego (2025) 109 Cal. App.5th 1257, the Fourth District Court of Appeal invalidated two thresholds of significance adopted by the County of San Diego (“County”) that in...more

Allen Matkins

California Court Clarifies CEQA Tribal Consultation Duties in First Published AB 52 Decision

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On March 14, 2025, the California Court of Appeal for the First District issued the first published opinion interpreting Assembly Bill 52 (AB 52), the law governing tribal consultation procedures under the California...more

Meyers Nave

Court of Appeal Invalidates County's Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT) Screening Thresholds for CEQA Review

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A California court of appeal has held that a lead agency conducting environmental review, under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), of “vehicle miles traveled” (VMT) impacts may not unquestioningly use thresholds...more

Miller Starr Regalia

Fourth District Invalidates San Diego County’s “Infill” And “Small Project” VMT Screening Thresholds As Lacking Substantial...

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In a published opinion filed March 27, 2025, the Fourth District Court of Appeal (Div. 1) reversed the trial court’s judgment denying a writ petition, and held that two screening thresholds of significance for vehicle miles...more

Coblentz Patch Duffy & Bass

Summary of Select 2024 California Real Estate and Land Use Cases Impacting Real Estate Developers

On January 21, 2025, Coblentz litigation partner Skye Langs presented for the Bar Association of San Francisco’s Real Property section on the following real estate and land use cases from 2024...more

Holland & Knight LLP

Court Upholds City's Reliance on CEQA Exemption, Reaffirms Canons of Statutory Interpretation

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In April 2021, a developer applied to the City of King City, California (City), for a proposed 18,000-square-foot Grocery Outlet store (Project). The Project site was a former 1.6-acre car sales lot adjacent to Highway 101...more

Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton LLP

California Court Holds Proposed Ballot Measure Excluding Community Plan Area from Height Limit Is Not a “Later Activity” For...

In late June, California’s Fourth District Court of Appeal upheld a Superior Court decision in Save Our Access v. City of San Diego, providing clarity for determining when a “later activity” is beyond the scope of an existing...more

Perkins Coie

Compensatory Mitigation Infeasible for Loss of Historic Building

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The Court of Appeal upheld the City’s determination that compensatory mitigation for the loss of a historic building in the form of funding of other historic preservation was not feasible because there were no other buildings...more

Perkins Coie

General Request for EIR Insufficient to Exhaust Administrative Remedies When Challenging Reliance on Categorical Exemption

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Plaintiff did not exhaust administrative remedies when challenging the City’s approval of a homeowner’s development project on the ground that a Class 1 categorical exemption was inapplicable. Arcadians for Environmental...more

Perkins Coie

Bond Properly Required for Challenge to Affordable Housing

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A local organization appealed the denial of its challenge to the approval of an affordable housing project and disputed the trial court’s order requiring it to post a bond. The Court of Appeal rejected plaintiff’s contentions...more

Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton LLP

Court of Appeal Holds No-Project Alternative Analysis May Mean More When Conversation is an Option and Reinforces Low Barrier to...

In Save the Hill Group v. City of Livermore et al., the First District Court of Appeal (Div. 5) reversed and remanded the superior court’s decision to uphold the reissued final environmental impact report (RFEIR) for a...more

Miller Starr Regalia

First District Holds EIR’s Analysis of “No Project” Alternative To City of Livermore Residential Development Violated CEQA By...

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In a published decision filed March 30, 2022, the First District Court of Appeal (Division 5) reversed a trial court judgment upholding the reissued final environmental impact report (“RFEIR”) for a 44-single family residence...more

Miller Starr Regalia

Third District Addresses Significant CEQA Issues In Mixed Decision On Placer County’s EIR For Specific Plan/Rezoning Allowing...

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In a sprawling, 123-page published opinion filed on February 14, 2022, the Third District Court of Appeal affirmed in part, and reversed in part, judgments in consolidated CEQA actions challenging Placer County’s EIR for its...more

Buchalter

California Courts Close Loopholes in Definition of “Project” Under CEQA

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During the week of August 19, 2019, both the Appellate and Supreme Courts of California issued decisive opinions clarifying the parameters of agency action subject to environmental review under the California Environmental...more

Perkins Coie

EIR’s Project Description May Present Alternative Development Options and the Agency May Approve A Variant of an Analyzed...

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An EIR’s project description may identify alternative development schemes proposed for a single project, and the agency may approve a modified version of the project that incorporates elements of one of the alternatives...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

Allen Matkins

Coastal Development Permit Cannot Be Challenged in Court Until After Coastal Commission Decides an Appeal

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A court challenge to a local agency’s decision to grant a coastal development permit becomes moot when the Coastal Commission accepts an appeal of the decision, the California court of appeal ruled in Fudge v. City of Laguna...more

Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton LLP

CDP Applicant May Not Challenge Local Agency’s CEQA Decision on Coastal Development Permit While CDP Appeal to Coastal Commission...

In Fudge v. City of Laguna (G055711), published on February 13, 2019, the Fourth District Court of Appeal joined the First and Sixth Districts by reaffirming the need for a litigant to wait for the California Coastal...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

Nossaman LLP

Fourth District Holds That Local Agency CDP Court Challenge Was Mooted by Administrative Appeal to Coastal Commission

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On February 13, 2019, the Fourth District Court of Appeal in Fudge v. City of Laguna Beach (Feb. 13, 2019, G055711) __ Cal.App.5th ___, joined the First and Sixth Districts in holding that the Coastal Commission’s acceptance...more

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