April 2012

Rejecting intervenors’ challenges to a pre-litigation tolling agreement between a CEQA plaintiff (Salmon Protection and Watershed Network, or “SPAWN”) and MarinCounty, in an action challenging the EIR for a countrywide general plan update, the First District Court of Appeal upheld the legal validity of such tolling agreements notwithstanding CEQA’s strong policies for expedited litigation.  Salmon Protection And Watershed Network v. County of Marin, et al. (4/20/12, Div. 3) 205 Cal.App.4th 195, Case No. A133109.  Recognizing CEQA’s strong public policy favoring the prompt filing, litigation, and disposition of CEQA challenges, as embodied and reaffirmed in numerous statutory provisions and judicial decisions, the Court’s decision relied on an equally strong public policy encouraging settlement.  The Court’s decision was supported not only by the parties but – in a rare show of CEQA solidarity – by amici curiae League of California Cities, the California State Association of Counties, the California Building Industry Association, and the Sierra Club.
Continue Reading CEQA Limitations Period Tolling Agreements Upheld By First District Court of Appeal

In a case addressing important issues affecting local agencies and landowners (disclaimer:  I represented the County of Napa in the trial court and on appeal), the First District (Division 4) Court of Appeal on April 20, 2012 filed its published opinion affirming a judgment upholding the County’s clarifying lot line adjustment ordinance (Ord. No. 1331) against facial challenges by the Sierra Club under the Subdivision Map Act and CEQA.  Sierra Club v. Napa County Board of Supervisors, et al. (4/20/12) 205 Cal.App.4th 162, Case No. A130980.  The Court stated:  “We hold that the provisions of the Ordinance allowing sequential lot line adjustments are consistent with the Map Act’s exclusion of lot line adjustments from the requirements of the act.  Further, since the Ordinance spells out a ministerial lot line adjustment approval process, the Ordinance is exempt from CEQA purview.”

After detailing the histories of the Map Act’s statutory exclusion for lot line adjustments (Gov. Code, § 66412(d)) and the County’s local ordinances governing lot line adjustments, the Court observed:  “The Ordinance as adopted continued the County’s existing administrative practice of allowing lot line adjustments impacting four or fewer parcels to readjust lots included in a prior application, provided the prior adjustments had been completed and recorded.  So, too, the new Ordinance continued existing policy and practice such that [lot] line adjustments are ministerial acts not subject to CEQA.”Continue Reading First District Holds CEQA Does Not Apply To Napa County Ordinance Clarifying Its Ministerial Lot Line Adjustment Practice, And That Sequential Lot Line Adjustments Do Not Violate Subdivision Map Act Exclusion’s “Four or Fewer” Limitation