Tag Archives: environmental law

CA, CEQA, deregulated housing bills, Planning, Politics

As new North Bay neighborhood nears approval, environmental concerns weigh heavily

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By Keith Mizuguchi : kqed – excerpt

For the past 11 months, Jennifer Sullivan has been anxiously trying to sound an alarm. The Esmeralda Land Company has proposed building a resort hotel, hundreds of homes, an event center, a preschool and a public park on a 266-acre property that once housed a wood treatment plant.

Tucked in the Sonoma County town of Cloverdale, the 8-acre plant was known to use harmful chemicals and discharged them into the soil and groundwater, she said. Sullivan worries that disturbing the site with new development could resurface those chemicals and expose current residents to new harms. “This is the community that I live in,” Sullivan said. “The decision to approve this development is serious — it’s got serious consequences for our water, for public health.”

On Wednesday, the Cloverdale City Council will consider whether to approve the project — one of the largest developments in the city’s recent history — along with its extensive community benefits package and already-completed environmental reviews, essentially clearing the path for its eventual construction. As it does, however, council members are weighing the homes, jobs and tax revenue such a project might generate against a new wave of concerns from residents over environmental harms.

Esmeralda CEO Devon Zuegel said she generally understands those concerns but argues the project has already undergone extensive environmental reviews. “This site has been studied for over two decades continuously,” Zuegel said. “And if 20 years is not a long enough review, I just don’t understand, is 100 years enough — 25 years? What is the point where it becomes enough?”

Still, Sullivan isn’t satisfied. And she’s preparing to take the fight to voters. If the city council approves the Esmeralda development as is, Sullivan wants a referendum and said she’ll start collecting signatures to place such a measure on a ballot… (more)

Anybody see a reason to vote NO on Prop 45 to make these projects more transparent? And a reason why half the cities in California are ready to fight the Wiener bills that overplayed the state’s hand by removing local control?
Efforts by Our Neighborhood Voices to reverse the trend are paying off. 

Politics

Is gentrification an environmental impact?

By Tim Redmond : 48jills – excerpt

The battle over People’s Park has been raging since I was in sixth grade, and we could spend a huge amount of time talking about the role of the three-acre lot in the history of Berkeley. It’s been a point of contention representing so much and so many issues, and it’s back in the news now that UC Berkeley once again is trying to build a dorm on the site as part of a much larger campus expansion plan.

And this week, the Court of Appeal for the First Circuit of California issued a ruling on what started out as a technical legal issue around the project but has now, potentially, changed the way environmental law applies to cities in Northern California.

Specifically, the tentative court ruling holds that gentrification and displacement are issues that have to be analyzed under the California Environmental Quality Act.

That would, among other things, justify the Board of Supes decision on 469 Stevenson Street and force the city and developers to do an entirely new type of analysis before they put luxury housing projects in vulnerable communities.

This isn’t final: The opinion is still in draft form, and won’t be finalized until after the court hears oral arguments Jan. 12. Even if the court sticks to its tentative ruling, the Supreme Court could take up the case.

But if it holds, development-friendly folks are already freaking out. From today’s Business Times… (more)

Alameda Court cases are not always predictable and this case proves that point. Will this become a precedent setting case or only a blip on the radar? Stay tuned.