Preserve Wild Santee v. City of Santee
| Citation | 210 Cal.App.4th 260,148 Cal.Rptr.3d 310 |
| Decision Date | 19 October 2012 |
| Docket Number | D061030.,Nos. D055215,s. D055215 |
| Parties | PRESERVE WILD SANTEE et al., Plaintiffs and Appellants, v. CITY OF SANTEE et al., Defendants and Appellants; HomeFed Fanita Rancho, LLC, Real Party in Interest and Appellant. Preserve Wild Santee et al., Plaintiffs and Respondents, v. City of Santee et al., Defendants and Appellants; HomeFed Fanita Rancho, LLC, Real Party in Interest and Appellant. |
| Court | California Court of Appeals |
OPINION TEXT STARTS HERE
See 12 Witkin, Summary of Cal. Law (10th ed. 2005) Real Property, § 832 et seq.
John T. Buse, Kevin K. Johnson, San Diego, and Jeanne L. MacKinnon for Plaintiffs and Appellants and for Plaintiffs and Respondents; and Michael D. Fitts for Plaintiff and Appellant and for Plaintiff and Respondent Endangered Habitats League.
Best Best & Krieger, Lindsay D. Puckett, San Diego, Michelle Ouellette, Riverside, and Shawn D. Hagerty, San Diego, for Defendants and Appellants.
Allen Matkins Leck Gamble Mallory & Natsis, Jeffrey A. Chine and Heather S. Riley, San Diego, for Real Party in Interest and Appellant.
Preserve Wild Santee, Center for Biological Diversity, and Endangered Habitats League, Inc. (collectively, plaintiffs) challenged the certification by the City of Santee (City) of a final environmental impact report (EIR) for a development project in the City's Fanita Ranch area (project), claiming the project failed to comply with the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) ( Pub. Resources Code, § 21000 et seq.) in several respects.1 The trial court found merit to one claim—that there was insufficient evidence to support the EIR's conclusion the project's fire safety impacts were less than significant. The trial court issued a limited writ of mandate (limited writ) directing the City to bring this aspect of the EIR into compliance with CEQA and stayed further activities on the project until the City did so. The trial court subsequently determined plaintiffs were the prevailing parties in the litigation and awarded them costs under Code of Civil Procedure section 1032, subdivision (b), as well as attorney fees under Code of Civil Procedure section 1021.5.
On appeal, plaintiffs reassert several claims raised below, including that the EIR improperly deferred mitigation of the project's impacts on the Quino checkerspot butterfly (Quino) and inadequately analyzed the project's water supply impacts. They also contend the trial court was not permitted to issue the limited writ and, instead, was required to vacate the City's certification of the EIR and all related project approvals.2
The City and real party in interest HomeFed Fanita Rancho, LLC (HomeFed or developer) 3 contend the trial court erred in determining plaintiffs were the prevailing parties and awarding them costs and attorney fees. 4 They alternatively contend we must reverse the attorney fee award because the trial court failed to explain how it reached the award amount. 5
We conclude the EIR improperly deferred some of the mitigation for the project's Quino impacts and inadequately analyzed the project's water supply impacts. Although we conclude the trial court may, in appropriate cases, remedy CEQA violations by issuing a limited writ, we question whether this was an appropriate case since the flaw in the EIR's fire safety impacts analysis affected the entire project and the project's fire safety impacts interrelate with its impacts on biological resources, such as the Quino and grasshopper sparrow, requiring careful vegetation management for their preservation. We need not decide the matter, however, since the trial court has recently ordered the City to decertify the EIR and set aside the project approvals as part of subsequent trial court proceedings (see fn. 5, ante ). Finally, we conclude the trial court correctly found the plaintiffs were the prevailing parties in this litigation and did not err in awarding them attorney fees and costs below. We similarly award them attorney fees and costs on appeal and remand the matter to the trial court for a determination of the amount of such fees and costs.
The project covers 2,600 acres of undeveloped land in Santee, north of State Route 52 and west of State Route 67. The land contains several different biological communities “including wetland (e.g., seasonal basins and freshwater marsh), riparian (e.g., southern willow scrub, coast live oak riparian woodland, sycamore woodland, mule fat scrub), southern mixed chaparral, coastal sage scrub, disturbed coastal sage scrub, grasslands, disturbed or graded areas, and rock outcroppings.”
The project would develop approximately 970 acres of the land into 1,380 single-family dwelling units and approximately 230 acres into a pedestrian-oriented village center with 15 live/work units as well as community-serving recreational resources, including a 10–acre lake. The remaining approximately 1,400 acres of land would become an open space preserve (preserve).
In certifying the EIR, the City found the project would result in significant unavoidable air quality, traffic circulation, and cumulative climate change impacts. It adopted a statement of overriding considerations concluding the project's benefits outweighed these adverse impacts. The City found the project's other environmental impacts to be either less than significant or mitigated to a level of less than significant.
This appeal involves the project's impacts to fire safety, certain biological resources, and water supply. We, therefore, confine our summary to these areas.
The project is located in a declared high fire hazard zone due to the vegetation type, fire history, and rough topography in the area. The project site has burned many times in the past and it is expected to burn again in the future. Under established thresholds of significance, the project would have significant adverse fire safety impacts if it exposed people or structures to a significant risk of loss, injury, or death from wildfires.
To address the project's fire safety risks, the developer prepared a fire protection plan (fire plan) for the project. The fire plan's objective was to ensure the project's structures could survive wildfires without structure loss, without loss of life, and without intervention from firefighting personnel, who may be unavailable during a wildfire due to a high demand for their services.
To achieve its objective, the fire plan relied on multiple strategies, including: (1) building structures with fire resistant materials and sprinklers; (2) creating and maintaining “firewise” landscaping zones around structures; and (3) managing the amount of potential fuel in open space areas with prescribed burns or goat grazing. The EIR concluded the project's fire safety impacts were less than significant chiefly because of the fire plan.
However, when the City approved the project, it did not adopt the open space fuel management portion of the fire plan. Because the EIR's fire safety analysis depended entirely on the City's implementation of the fire plan and the fire plan depended in key part on periodic open space fuel modification with either prescribed burns or goat grazing, the trial court concluded there was insufficient evidence to support the EIR's conclusion the project did not have significant fire safety impacts.
The Multiple Species Conservation Program (MSCP) covers 900 square miles in San Diego County, including the project site and surrounding property. Participants in the MSCP include the City, the City of San Diego, the County of San Diego, and nine other local jurisdictions. Each jurisdiction implements its portion of the MSCP by developing a subarea plan describing the jurisdiction's specific implementing mechanisms, preserve boundaries, and species and habitats protections consistent with the MSCP framework plan.
Once adopted by the jurisdiction and approved by the U.S. Department of Fish and Wildlife and the California Department of Fish and Game (wildlife agencies), the subarea plan in conjunction with the MSCP operates as a habitat conservation plan consistent with the federal Endangered Species Act of 1973 (16 U.S.C. § 1531 et seq.) and a natural community program consistent with the California Natural Community Conservation Planning Act (Fish & G.Code, § 2800 et seq.). The purpose of the plans is to protect natural communities and species while allowing a reasonable amount of economic development.
At the time the City certified the EIR, the City of San Diego and the County of San Diego had approved subarea plans. The City had drafted, but had not adopted, its subarea plan. The draft subarea plan covers 15 plants and 33 wildlife species. Relying on a combination of hard-line protection areas and soft-line criteria-based protection zones, it estimates the location of future development and habitat preservation, and summarizes the mitigation and management requirements necessary for consistency with the MSCP.
The draft subarea plan is divided into five subunits: the San Diego River subunit, the Rattlesnake Mountain subunit, the Mission Trails subunit, the Magnolia Summit subunit, and the Fanita Ranch subunit. The project site is located in the Fanita Ranch subunit.
In assessing the project's cumulative impacts to biological resources, the EIR noted most of the surrounding property south of the project site is completely developed. There were no projects proposed for the surrounding property south and east of the project site, which had limited development potential as it was included in the City's draft subarea plan conservation planning. As to surrounding property within the County of San Diego's jurisdiction, there was no anticipated development on property north of the project,but property northeast of the project could be developed....
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Preserve Wild Santee v. City of Santee
...210 Cal.App.4th 260148 Cal.Rptr.3d 310PRESERVE WILD SANTEE et al., Plaintiffs and Appellants,v.CITY OF SANTEE et al., Defendants and Appellants;HomeFed Fanita Rancho, LLC, Real Party in Interest and Appellant.Preserve Wild Santee et al., Plaintiffs and Respondents,v.City of Santee et al., D......