In response to the Berkeley enrollment case, the Legislature is likely to do something. Exempting student and faculty housing would weaken CEQA -- but Justice Goodwin Liu laid out another path that could truly reform it.
The University of California tried to finesse the fact that Berkeley had blown past its enrollment target without doing additional CEQA analysis. And maybe the judge didn't have to "go nuclear" on this case. But the question of whether population growth in and of itself demands lengthy environmental analysis holds major implications for general plans in cities and counties throughout California.
A judge found the EIR for a huge wine resort inadequate -- because it didn't analyze the impact of additional people on current residents' ability to evacuate during a wildfire.
Tustin residents are trying to kill a 16-pump Costco gas station by challenging the CEQA infill exemption the city used. So far they've gotten nowhere.
In ruling on San Gabriel Mountains case, justice says repeatedly: “It is not the project’s ‘impacts on parking’ that matter; it is the impact of the project’s reduced parking on the environment that matters.”
In ruling about new building, trial judge says UC can't "analyze an increase in student enrollment without admitting that increasing student enrollment is a project subject to review."
