PEOPLE, ETC. v. City of South Lake Tahoe
| Decision Date | 22 December 1978 |
| Docket Number | Civ. No. S-78-435 PCW. |
| Citation | 466 F. Supp. 527 |
| Parties | The PEOPLE of the State of California, acting By and Through the CALIFORNIA DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION, Plaintiffs, v. CITY OF SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, a California Municipal Corporation, and the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency, Defendants. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Eastern District of California |
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Harry S. Fenton, Chief Counsel, Sacramento, Cal., Norval Fairman, San Francisco, Cal., Joseph C. Easley, Sacramento, Cal., Robert R. Buell, San Francisco, Cal., George L. Cory, Sacramento, Cal., for plaintiff People by and through the State Dept. of Transp.
Gary A. Owen, Owen & Rollston, Zephyr Cove, Nev., for defendant Tahoe Regional Planning Agency.
Roy C. Abrams, City Atty., City of South Lake Tahoe, South Lake Tahoe, Cal., for defendant City of South Lake Tahoe.
Plaintiff, the People of the State of California acting through the California Department of Transportation, filed this action requesting injunctive and declaratory relief. The complaint sought to prevent defendants, the City of South Lake Tahoe (City) and the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency (TRPA) from constructing the California segments of the so-called "loop road project" at the south end of Lake Tahoe without first complying with certain allegedly applicable state and federal laws. This matter comes before us now on plaintiff's motion for a preliminary injunction and on defendants' motions to dismiss the complaint and/or for summary judgment.
The Lake Tahoe basin comprises a 500 square mile area of spectacular beauty located in the Sierra Nevada Mountains along the California-Nevada border. Mark Twain described his first view of the lake, with its still reflection of the surrounding snowcapped peaks, as "surely . . . the fairest picture the whole earth affords." M. Twain, Roughing It 156 (Harper & Rowe 1899). The lake is 22 miles long and 12 miles wide with a maximum depth of 1,645 feet and a natural surface elevation of 6,223 feet above sea level. It is famed for the clarity and the brilliant blue-green color of its waters. Only two other sizable lakes in the world are of comparable quality — Crater Lake in Oregon, which is protected as part of the Crater Lake National Park, and Lake Baikal in the Soviet Union. H.R.Rep. No.650, 91st Cong., 1st Sess. 2-3 (1969); S.Rep.No.510, 91st Cong., 1st Sess. 4 (1969).
The rapid population growth in the western part of the United States, the postwar boom in tourism, outdoor recreation, and gambling, and the advent of modern allweather highways bringing Lake Tahoe within a few hours drive from several major metropolitan areas resulted in explosive growth and development in the basin and along the shoreline. These factors have posed a severe threat to the ecology of the area.1 Recognizing that local regulation was inadequate to preserve the natural resources of the area and that comprehensive regional planning was needed,2 California and Nevada entered into the Tahoe Regional Planning Compact (Compact), approved by Congress in 1969.3 Cal. Gov't Code §§ 66800-66801 (West Supp.1978); Nev. Rev.Stat. §§ 277.190-.220 (1977); Pub.L.No. 91-148, 83 Stat. 360, reprinted in 1969 U.S.Code Cong. & Admin.News, p. 380. The Compact created a bi-state organization, TRPA,4 and charged it with adopting ordinances, rules, regulations, and policies to effectuate a regional plan for the area. The Compact specified that the regional plan must include a transportation plan for the integrated development of a regional system of transportation. Compact, Article V(b)(2). Accordingly, in 1975 TRPA adopted a transportation plan, which included a proposed loop road at the southern end of Lake Tahoe to consist of a newly constructed road around the existing casino area in Douglas County, Nevada, which would connect with existing and extended streets in the City of South Lake Tahoe, California. Douglas County and the City agreed to build the portions of the loop road falling within their respective jurisdictions.
In May 1978, after TRPA had approved the Nevada portion of the loop road project5 but before construction of that portion had begun, plaintiff herein filed an action in the United States District Court for the District of Nevada to enjoin the proposed Nevada construction and seeking certain declaratory relief. Plaintiff's motion for a temporary restraining order in that case was denied, and its motion for a preliminary injunction is still pending before the district court. People of the State of California Acting By and Through the California Department of Transportation v. County of Douglas, No. 78-84 (D.Nev., filed May 8, 1978). An appeal from the order denying the temporary restraining order is presently before the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Id., appeal docketed, No. 78-2106 (9th Cir., May 19, 1978). In the meantime, the Nevada construction proceeded and was opened to traffic on August 11, 1978.
On August 18, 1978, plaintiff filed this action to enjoin construction of the California portion of the loop road project, which would consist of widening, realigning, or extending certain segments of existing City streets.6 Plaintiff also sought declarations that TRPA is subject to the provisions of the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA), 42 U.S.C. §§ 4321-4347 (1976), and the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), Cal.Pub.Res.Code §§ 21000-21176 (West 1977). In addition, plaintiff prayed for declarations that the City, in undertaking the improvements to the California portion of the loop road, is subject to the approval provisions of the California Tahoe Regional Planning Agency (CTRPA)7 and to the provisions of CEQA.
On August 22, 1978, this court denied plaintiff's motion for a temporary restraining order. On August 23, 1978, the City received approval from TRPA to undertake construction of one of the segments of the California loop road project, the realignment and widening of an access road connecting the westerly portion of the Nevada loop road to Pine Boulevard. On the same date, however, the Superior Court of the State of California for the County of El Dorado, in a wholly separate action, issued a temporary restraining order prohibiting that construction based on the City's failure to obtain CTRPA approval. The Superior Court subsequently lifted the restriction, California Tahoe Regional Planning Agency v. City of South Lake Tahoe, No. 31911 (Super.Ct. El Dorado, Oct. 6, 1978), and the Pine Boulevard construction has now been substantially completed.
We face at the outset defendant City's claim, raised in its Points and Authorities in opposition to plaintiff's complaint, that the California Attorney General has the exclusive right to bring environmental actions in the name of the people of California and that the Department of Transportation therefore improperly seeks to allege the rights of persons it cannot represent.8
The California Attorney General has charge of all legal matters in which the state is interested except those of state agencies which are authorized by statute to employ attorneys. Cal. Gov't Code §§ 11041 (West Supp.1978), 11402 (West 1966), 12511 (West 1963). The Department of Transportation has statutory authority to maintain a legal department, see id. §§ 11041, 14007 (West Supp.1978); Cal.Sts. & Hy.Code § 20 (West Supp.1978), and it may bring legal actions in the name of the state in matters relating to the construction, improvement, maintenance, or use of highways under its jurisdiction. See Cal. Sts. & Hy.Code § 92 (West 1969). Since the proposed California loop road improvements could impact the portion of Route 50 within California,9 over which the Department of Transportation has jurisdiction, see id. §§ 20 (West Supp.1978), 90 (West 1969), 253.1 (West Supp.1978), the present action is within the authority of that agency.
Defendant City contends, however, that the California Attorney General has the exclusive right to represent the people of California in environmental actions by virtue of Government Code sections 12600-12612, enacted in 1971, which grant broad environmental protection authority to the Attorney General. Defendant particularly points to section 12600(b), which provides: "It is in the public interest to provide the people of the State of California through the Attorney General with adequate remedy to protect the natural resources of the State of California from pollution, impairment, or destruction."
Defendant misconstrues the significance of this legislation, for it was intended to ensure that the Attorney General would have the right — but not necessarily the exclusive right — to bring environmental actions on behalf of the people of the state where appropriate. See generally Wagoner, Environmental Protection in California: Court Action Powers of State and Local Government Attorneys, 14 Santa Clara Law. 296 (1974). That the legislation was intended to be permissive rather than restrictive is apparent from the language of the statute. Section 12607 states: "The Attorney General may maintain an action for equitable relief in the name of the people of the State of California against any person for the protection of the natural resources of the state from pollution, impairment, or destruction." (Emphasis added.) Section 12603 states: "This article shall be liberally construed and applied to promote its underlying purposes," which are defined elsewhere as the protection of the environment and the natural resources of the state. Cal. Gov't Code § 12600 (West Supp.1978). Defendant's restrictive construction of the statute is not consistent with this mandate, nor is it consistent with section 12601, which provides: "The provisions of this article are not exclusive, and the...
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