Fhca v. City of Los Angeles

• Decision Date: 28 September 2000
• Docket Number: No. B126659.,B126659.
• Citation: 83 Cal.App.4th 1252,100 Cal.Rptr.2d 301
• Court: California Court of Appeals Court of Appeals
• Parties: FEDERATION OF HILLSIDE AND CANYON ASSOCIATIONS et al. Plaintiffs and Appellants, v. CITY OF LOS ANGELES et al. Defendants and Appellants.

100 Cal.Rptr.2d 301

83 Cal.App.4th 1252

FEDERATION OF HILLSIDE AND CANYON ASSOCIATIONS et al. Plaintiffs and Appellants, v. CITY OF LOS ANGELES et al. Defendants and Appellants.

No. B126659.

Court of Appeal, Second District, Division 3.

September 28, 2000.

Lawrence Teeter, Los Angeles, for Plaintiffs and Appellants.

James K. Hahn, City Attorney, Patricia V. Tubert, Senior Assistant City Attorney and Susan D. Pfann, Assistant City Attorney, for Defendants and Appellants.

CROSKEY, Acting C.J.

Federation of Hillside and Canyon Associations (FHCA), a homeowners' advocacy group, and Coalition Against the Pipeline (CAP), an environmental advocacy group (collectively, Petitioners), challenged the certification by City of Los Angeles and Los Angeles City Council (collectively, the city) of an environmental impact report (EIR) concerning an amendment to the city's general plan. They maintained that the EIR was deficient, that there was no substantial evidence to support the city's findings, and that the city had failed to recirculate the draft EIR upon the release of a transportation plan affecting the amended general plan. The trial court found that the city had failed to circulate the transportation plan and ordered the city to do so but rejected Petitioners' other challenges.

Petitioners appeal that part of the judgment denying their petition. They contend there is no substantial evidence to support the city's findings that mitigation measures will significantly reduce the amended general plan's adverse impacts on transportation and that water resources will be sufficient, the EIR does not adequately address reasonable alternative plans, and it does not adequately address the impact of population growth.

The city appeals that part of the judgment ordering it to circulate the transportation plan, contending its decision not to do so was supported by substantial evidence and therefore was proper.

FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

The city recently adopted a General Plan Framework (GPF) as part of its general plan. It notified public agencies and interested organizations that it was preparing the GPF and a draft EIR and solicited comments in July 1994. After receiving comments, it completed the proposed GPF and draft EIR and provided public notice and an opportunity to review and comment beginning in January 1995.

The proposed GPF addressed land use, housing, infrastructure, transportation, and other elements of the general plan. It stated that it was designed to provide a long-term strategy to accommodate the anticipated future growth in population and employment and to serve as a guide to amend in the future the more detailed land use plans in the city's 35 (now 37) separate community plans. It stated that the anticipated growth would severely impair transportation and accessibility unless dramatic new measures were undertaken. Specifically, it projected a 35 percent increase in vehicular traffic and a 50 percent decrease in average highway travel speeds by the year 2010, assuming that the then currently funded traffic improvement programs were implemented and no others.

The GPF proposed several operational and physical improvements to traffic systems and infrastructure, policies to encourage the use of public transit and reduce vehicle trips, and other measures to reduce traffic congestion and improve accessibility. It identified several programs necessary to implement the GPF, including a proposed Transportation Improvement Mitigation Plan (TIMP), described as a program to mitigate the transportation impacts of the GPF's land use and growth policies. It also called for the development of a general plan transportation element, superseding the prior circulation element, to describe specific proposals in greater detail. The GPF provided for the city to continue to monitor population and employment growth and the effects on transportation.

The GPF stated that the city would "accommodate [the] projected population and employment growth" (Policy 3.3.1) and would monitor growth and its effects on infrastructure and service capacities annually in order to "consider regulating" development if the infrastructure remains inadequate (Policy 3.3.2(d)). It also stated that the city would increase the GPF's growth projections if and when transportation improvements and other effective mitigation measures are implemented. (Policy 3.3.2(b).) However, it did not require that the mitigation measures be implemented as a condition of the development allowed under the GPF.

The draft EIR analyzed the environmental impacts of the GPF, TIMP, and related planning and zoning code amendments. It stated that the GPF would result in significant increases in traffic congestion and would reduce average freeway speeds by as much as 50 percent by the year 2010. However, it stated that the mitigation measures included in the TIMP would reduce those impacts to a level of insignificance. It also proposed further mitigation measures, including greater support for zero-emission and low-emission vehicles, greater expansion of bus and rail transit systems, and other measures. It stated that the mitigation measures would reduce the cumulative significant effects on transportation "to the extent feasible."

The city completed the proposed TIMP in February 1995, after it had circulated the proposed GPF and draft EIR. It made the TIMP available to the public in February 1995 but did not provide formal public notice or recirculate the draft EIR at that time. The TIMP included several proposals to improve the existing transportation infrastructure and increase its capacity, provide additional rail and bus transit, and encourage greater use of public transit and telecommuting. It stated that to implement the proposals would require the cooperative efforts of several state, local, and federal public agencies, together with the city, at a cost of approximately $12 billion over 20 years. It stated that a substantial portion of the cost must be borne by state and regional agencies, and that a preliminary analysis indicated that the city's portion of the cost would far exceed its anticipated revenues, including revenues from Proposition C local return funds, gasoline taxes, development fees, street dedications and improvements related to private development, and the city's general fund.

The city received comments to the proposed GPF and draft EIR in writing and at several public hearings held by the city's department of city planning and planning commission through July 1995. After several amendments, the city produced a final EIR in June 1996 and an amended GPF in July 1996. Both documents cited and relied in large part on the TIMP mitigation measures to alleviate the significant effects on transportation. The final EIR stated, in its summary and transportation sections, that the effects on transportation were significant but could be substantially reduced through mitigation. However, it stated in the section discussing cumulative effects that even with the mitigation measures the cumulative impact of the GPF would cause significant, unavoidable adverse effects on the Los Angeles region.

The city also prepared a document entitled Proposed CEQA Findings and Statement of Overriding Considerations (Proposed Findings) in July 1996. The Proposed Findings stated that the GPF's land use policy and the mitigation measures identified in the TIMP and final EIR would avoid or substantially reduce the significant impacts on transportation. However, it also stated that even with mitigation the cumulative impact on transportation would be significant and unavoidable. It discussed several alternatives to the GPF, concluded that they would not achieve the city's central objectives and were infeasible, and found that specific overriding considerations outweighed the unavoidable significant effects on the environment. Those overriding considerations included the conclusions that the GPF would manage growth that was likely to occur with or without effective management, strengthen the city's economic base, protect the character of residential neighborhoods by encouraging growth in commercial districts, accommodate increased housing needs, and otherwise contribute to the quality of life in Los Angeles while minimizing adverse environmental effects.

The city council held a public hearing on the project in July 1996 and amended the GPF. After further public hearings before the planning commission and city council, the city approved the GPF, adopted the Proposed Findings, and certified the final EIR at a public hearing in December 1996.

Petitioners filed a petition for writ of mandate in the superior court in January 1997, challenging the sufficiency of the EIR and the city's failure to recirculate the draft EIR after releasing the TIMP. They argued that, in light of the statement in the TIMP, the city's projected revenues were inadequate to meet its share of the TIMP's substantial costs, the mitigation measures upon which the draft EIR relied were infeasible, that the mitigation measures depended upon the cooperation of other public agencies and funding from those agencies was highly speculative, and that there was no substantial evidence to support the finding that the significant effects on transportation would be mitigated. They also argued that there was no substantial evidence to support the city's finding that water resources would be sufficient, that the EIR did not adequately address feasible alternative plans and the impact of population growth, and that the city's failure to recirculate the draft EIR after the TIMP was released invalidated the EIR. The trial court concluded that the city was required to circulate the TIMP for review and comment and ordered the city to do so, but rejected Petitioners' other challenges to the EIR.

CONTENTIONS

Petitioners contend (1) there is no substantial evidence to support the city's findings that the mitigation...