Uncategorized

Subscribe to Uncategorized

I’m very pleased to report that my colleague Travis Brooks will be speaking on CEQA issues and recent developments online at the 35th annual California Water Law & Policy Conference, which is presented by Argent Communications and will take place in virtual format on April 19 and 21, 2021.  Miller Starr Regalia is a sponsor of the conference “California Water Rights, Policies Regulation, and the Future Under the New Administration,” and Travis’s topic, “CEQA Update:  Yes, Water Practitioners Need to Know This,” will be presented on April 19, 2021, at 1:15 p.m.  The Conference webpage and brochure can be found here and here, and registration information and materials can be accessed here.
…
Continue Reading Miller Starr Attorney To Present On CEQA Developments At Upcoming Water Law Conference

“The more I know, the less I understand/All the things I thought I’d figured out, I have to learn again” – Don Henley, “The Heart of the Matter”

One of CEQA’s bedrock principles is that environmental review must precede project approval.  (E.g., POET, LLC v. California Air Resources Board (2013) 217 Cal.App.4th 1214; CEQA Guidelines, § 15004(a).)  To reverse the order and “put the cart before the horse” would be anathema, i.e., to sanction uninformed and undemocratic lead agency decision making, and to encourage irretrievable commitments of resources and post-hoc rationalizations that foreclose mitigations and alternatives and sweep environmental considerations under the rug.  Right?  Well …  maybe not.  In the area of State Water Resources Control Board (“SWRCB” or the “State Board”) water quality certifications (“WQCs”) under the Federal Clean Water Act (“CWA”; 33 U.S.C § 1251 et seq), this bedrock principle appears to have been watered down, and it may be significantly eroding under pressure from a preemptive federal law deadline.

…
Continue Reading Must CEQA Compliance Precede Project Approval? When State Water Board Water Quality Certifications Are Involved, The Answer Is As “Clear as Mud”

As readers of this blog know, my endeavor since its inception with regard to judicial developments has, in general, been to cover only published CEQA cases.  I have two simple reasons for this, which essentially boil down to importance and practicality.  With regard to my first reason, published cases are more important because they are legal precedents that state holdings and rules binding on everyone, not just the parties to the action.  With respect to my second reason, CEQA is generally an active area of law in terms of appellate cases, new legislation, and other significant developments; keeping track of the published – i.e., most important – cases is a big enough task without worrying about the even greater number of non-precedential unpublished ones.  Since this blog’s beginning in September 2011, it has produced a total of 347 CEQA-related posts (not counting this one), demonstrating there is generally no shortage of subject matter, even with my self-imposed limitation excluding unpublished decisions.
…
Continue Reading Why Are CEQA Cases Published Or Not? Observations From A Look Back at 2020’s Decisions

While the COVID-19 pandemic made 2020 a year most would prefer to keep in the rear view mirror, the courts kept fairly busy handing down precedents that hopefully provided us all with a better road map for navigating CEQA.  What follows is not a comprehensive review, but more of a brief trip down memory lane to review a “baker’s dozen” of last year’s case law highlights.
…
Continue Reading 2020: A Look Back at the Year’s CEQA Case Law

In late September, Governor Newsom signed Executive Order N-80-20 (“EO 80-20”), which, among other things, extends the protections of a handful of previously issued executive orders related to COVID-19.  As relevant to CEQA practitioners, EO 80-20 extends the previous suspension of CEQA’s requirements for filing of specified notices with the county clerk and the posting of such notices in the county clerk’s office.
…
Continue Reading Governor Extends Conditional Suspension of Requirements Related to Posting CEQA Notices with County Clerks

A little over a year ago, I posted about the filing of a federal RICO (the federal “Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act”; 18 U.S.C. § 1962 et seq.) lawsuit by developer Relevant Group, LLC and related entities (“Relevant”) alleging that defendants (Stephan “Saeed” Nourmand and Michael Nourmand and their business entities) filed and threatened frivolous CEQA suits solely to “shake down” and extort monetary settlements – without regard to environmental concerns – from economically vulnerable hotel project developers.  (See “CEQA Meets RICO:  True Stories Of Extortion and Litigation Abuse in Tinseltown,” posted July 12, 2019.)  Since then, the litigation has progressed significantly.  After surviving a robust motion to dismiss, the case has become “at issue” with defendants’ filing of an answer to plaintiffs’ Second Amended Complaint (“SAC”) on June 24, 2020, and the District Court filing a Scheduling and Case Management Order on July 24, 2020.
…
Continue Reading CEQA Meets RICO: Round Two

On March 30, 2020, the publishers of the California Land Use Law & Policy Reporter and sponsoring law firms (including Miller Starr Regalia) will present the Sixth Annual California Land Use Law & Policy Conference at the Marriott City Center Hotel in Oakland.  The intensive one-day program will cover housing, coastal sea level rise, wetlands and endangered species regulation, and CEQA issues, and will feature a keynote address on legislative housing fixes by California Assemblyman David Chiu.  I’ll be speaking with my colleagues Jennifer Hernandez and Alisha Winterswyk on CEQA’s history, track record; and trends as our state’s signature environmental law turns 50 this year.  Further details on program content, faculty and registration can be found here.  Hope to see you there!
…
Continue Reading Miller Starr Regalia Sponsors, Talks CEQA At Upcoming Sixth Annual California Land Use Law & Policy Conference In Oakland

Background

A long time ago, in a legal galaxy far, far away, Emperor Reagan signed the California Environmental Quality Act (“CEQA”) into law.  For many years, the “dark forces” that had wrought the adverse environmental impacts giving rise to CEQA – land developers and the public agencies granting their approvals – labored under its ever-expanding yoke.  Many litigation battles were fought, and many won by the heroic Jedi of the environmental plaintiffs’ bar and their NGO clients, firmly establishing the preeminence and vast reach of CEQA’s seemingly beneficent empire into the far-flung corners of the legal universe.  CEQA’s “force” was such that no project with the potential to effect a physical change in the environment, unless granted legislative or magisterial exemption, escaped its watchful eye and mitigating powers.

…
Continue Reading CEQA Wars: The Developer Strikes Back (In Federal Court)