Ruling may weaken ‘super statute’ often used to block housing projects with small environmental impact.
People’s Park in Berkeley, Calif., on Jan. 23, 2024. UC Berkeley surrounded the park with shipping containers and hired security to keep people out while waiting for court approval to build student housing there.
Given its location next to a very busy freeway and the ramshackle condition of the existing structures, a new cluster of apartment high-rises close to downtown Sacramento would seem to be a perfect fit, which is what city staff concluded as they exempted the project from a detailed review under the , or at last delay, approval. The group has appealed the city staff’s findings and filed a lawsuit alleging the project would adversely affect wildlife habitat and create light and noise pollution.
Opponents of the project won an appellate court ruling that noise from student occupants was an environmental impact that had to be mitigated. There was an immediate media and political uproar because the ruling seemingly created a new weapon for the not-in-my-back-yard folks, or NIMBYs, who oppose almost any project.
New CEQA is just an everyday statute, to be construed like other statutes. Be faithful to text, be reasonable, and heed the Legislature’s signals.
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