California Court of Appeal

In a petition for writ of mandate brought under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), seeking to overturn the decision of City and County of San Francisco to permit real parties in interest to place sets of wireless telecommunications equipment on existing utility poles, including a pole located near petitioners' homes, trial court's denial of the petition is affirmed where: 1) as a matter of law, the T-Mobile project fell within the scope of the Class 3 categorical exemptions under the Guidelines; 2) petitioners have failed to produce substantial evidence supporting a fair argument that the cumulative impact of the T-Mobile project, when considered together with other similar installations, will have an adverse visual or auditory impact on the environment; 3) the city's failure to issue the CEQA exemption certificate and the DPH approval before issuing the permit for the project is not grounds for invalidating the permit; and 4) as a matter of law, affixing small equipment boxes to an existing utility pole in a developed urban area does not result in a significant or substantial deprivation of property so as to trigger constitutional due process rights.

Appellate Information

• Decided 08/21/2012
• Published 08/21/2012

Judges

• Reardon

Court

• California Court of Appeal

Counsel