California Court of Appeal

In this case involving defendant-city's emergency storm drainage repair and revegetation project, plaintiff filed a petition for writ of mandate under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) and other laws, alleging causes of action for violation of its right to due process for defendant's untimely disclosure of the initial study, unlawful assessment of an unreasonable appeal fee, and failure to perform any environmental review of the project under CEQA. The trial court granted plaintiff's petition and enjoined defendant from undertaking any physical activities relating to the project until defendant issued all required permits and subjected the project to environmental review under CEQA. The judgment is affirmed to the extent it declared defendant's assessment of the appeal fee invalid and set it aside, and reversed in all other respects with directions to the trial court to deny the petition, where: 1) the storm drain repair work and the revegetation project are exempt from CEQA; and 2) plaintiff was not denied its right to due process of law and a fair hearing.

Appellate Information

• Decided 02/19/2015
• Published 02/18/2015

Judges

• McDonald

Court

• California Court of Appeal

Counsel