Appellate court strikes down CEQA challenge on bridge project, saying the impact of wildfire safety issues on the project isn't a topic of analysis. >>read more
Court also concludes the requirement calling for all roads to be built before any private development is constructed runs afoul of the Nollan/Dolan doctrine. >>read more
By the simplest accounts, peace has returned to Lake Tahoe.
California-Nevada cooperation has rescued the Lake Tahoe Regional Compact from years of deadlock and faltering communication over environmental governance by the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency (TRPA).
In 2004, the El Dorado County Board of Supervisors adopted a general plan. With that plan, the county adopted a programmatic environmental impact report (PEIR). The PEIR indicated that the development contemplated under the county's new general plan would have significant and unavoidable impacts on the county's oak woodland habitat and wildlife. The 2004 general plan identified two policies—options A and B—to assist in mitigating the impacts to oak woodland habitat.
A county may not assume that fees paid under a mitigation fee program constitute full environmental mitigation for a project when the program has not undergone California Environmental Quality Act review, the Third District Court of Appeal has ruled.
A plan that alters regulations for the operation of a wastewater treatment plant that disposes of effluent into a Sierra Nevada foothills creek, rather than requiring improvements to the plant, has been upheld by the First District Court of Appeal.
Anglers and environmentalists sued over the plan, arguing state water quality regulators violated the California Environmental Quality Act and the Porter-Cologne Water Quality Control Act. But a unanimous three-judge panel of the First District, Division One, ruled for the government.
