Presidio Golf Club v. National Park Service

• Decision Date: 21 September 1998
• Docket Number: No. 97-16703,97-16703
• Parties: 29 Envtl. L. Rep. 20,219, 98 Cal. Daily Op. Serv. 7300, 98 Daily Journal D.A.R. 10,104 PRESIDIO GOLF CLUB, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. NATIONAL PARK SERVICE, an agency of the United States; Department of the Interior, an agency of the United States; Robert Chandler, General Manager of Presidio Project, National Park Service; Brian O'Neill, General Superintendent, Golden Gate National Recreation Area, National Park Service; Roger G. Kennedy, Director, National Park Service; Bruce Babbitt, Secretary, Department of the Interior, Defendants-Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Ninth Circuit

Page 1153

155 F.3d 1153

29 Envtl. L. Rep. 20,219, 98 Cal. Daily Op.

Serv. 7300,

98 Daily Journal D.A.R. 10,104

PRESIDIO GOLF CLUB, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. NATIONAL PARK SERVICE, an agency of the United States;

Department of the Interior, an agency of the United States;

Robert Chandler, General Manager of Presidio Project,

National Park Service; Brian O'Neill, General

Superintendent, Golden Gate National Recreation Area,

National Park Service; Roger G. Kennedy, Director, National

Park Service; Bruce Babbitt, Secretary, Department of the

Interior, Defendants-Appellees.

No. 97-16703.

United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit.

Argued and Submitted May 12, 1998.

Decided Sept. 21, 1998.

Nicholas C. Yost, Sonnenschein, Nath & Rosenthal, San Francisco, California, for plaintiff-appellant.

Ronald M. Spritzer, United States Department of Justice, Washington, D.C., for defendants-appellees.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of California; Maxine M. Chesney, District Judge, Presiding. D.C. No. CV-96-04071-MMC.

Before: CHOY, PREGERSON, and BOOCHEVER, Circuit Judges.

BOOCHEVER, Circuit Judge:

The Presidio Golf Club ("Club") appeals the district court's summary judgment in favor of the National Park Service, the Department of the Interior, and related federal government officials, in the Club's action challenging the environmental and historic review process undertaken by the government and its concessioner, Arnold Palmer Golf Management Company, in connection with efforts to build a new public clubhouse at the Presidio Golf Course of San Francisco, near a century-old private Clubhouse which the Club seeks to preserve. The Club asserts violations of the National Environmental Policy Act, 42 U.S.C. § 4321 et seq. ("NEPA"), and the National Historic Preservation Act, 16 U.S.C. § 470 et seq. ("NHPA"). The Park Service challenges the Club's standing to sue under these statutes and the Administrative Procedures Act, 5 U.S.C. § 702.

I. Facts

In 1895, the San Francisco Golf Club received permission from the military to build the Presidio Golf Course on the grounds of the Presidio. The San Francisco Golf Club built the Presidio Golf Clubhouse in 1899 on private land abutting the Presidio, at the edge of the golf course. In 1919, the Presidio Golf Club, a California non-profit corporation, purchased the Clubhouse and has since maintained it as a private club. Military officers were permitted to join the Club at discounted rates, although in later years some instead used locker and lounge facilities By agreement, Club members and armed forces personnel together enjoyed exclusive use of the Presidio Golf Course until the Presidio was deactivated in 1994. At that time, the Presidio was transferred to the National Park Service, which opened the golf course to public use and curtailed the Club's preferential access. In 1995, the Park Service contracted with Arnold Palmer Golf Management Company ("Palmer Golf") to manage the golf course. The loss of preferential access to tee times by Club members significantly undercut the value of Club membership because, according to Palmer Golf, public demand "exceeds available tee times at the Presidio by a factor of 20 to 1."

at a cluster of buildings constructed in the 1950s by the Army near the private clubhouse (the "army golf course buildings").

In May 1996, the Park Service released to the public an Environmental Assessment ("EA"), which described plans for new public facilities at the golf course. Four of the existing Army golf course buildings were to be demolished, and replaced with a 6,000-square-foot public clubhouse.

In November 1996, the Club filed suit, seeking declaratory and injunctive relief. The Club contends that the Park Service failed to comply with NEPA by not preparing an adequate EA followed by an Environmental Impact Statement ("EIS") evaluating the impact of the proposed new public clubhouse on the old private Clubhouse. The Club also contends that the Park Service did not comply with NHPA by failing to consider that the building of the public clubhouse may lead to the neglect and destruction of the old private Clubhouse, which is concededly eligible for inclusion in the National Register of Historic Places. The Park Service challenged the Club's standing to sue under NEPA and NHPA.

On cross-motions for summary judgment, the district court held that the Club had standing because it is located in the vicinity of the proposed new clubhouse, and determined that the Park Service's conclusions in the EA and its "finding of no significant impact" were neither arbitrary nor capricious.

DISCUSSION

II. Presidio Golf Club's Standing

The Park Service contends that the Club lacks standing to sue under both NEPA and NHPA. The "irreducible constitutional minimum" for standing in an Article III court requires:

(1) that the plaintiff have suffered an "injury in fact"an invasion of a judicially cognizable interest which is (a) concrete and particularized and (b) actual or imminent, not conjectural or hypothetical; (2) that there be a causal connection between the injury and the conduct complained of-the injury must be fairly traceable to the challenged action of the defendant, and not the result of the independent action of some third party not before the court; and (3) that it be likely, as opposed to merely speculative, that the injury will be redressed by a favorable decision.

Bennett v. Spear, 520 U.S. 154, ----, 117 S.Ct. 1154, 1163, 137 L.Ed.2d 281 (1997). In addition to the constitutional standing limitations, the courts have erected prudential barriers, "such as the general prohibition on a litigant's raising another person's legal rights, ... and the requirement that a plaintiff's complaint fall within the zone of interests protected by the law invoked." Allen v. Wright, 468 U.S. 737, 751, 104 S.Ct. 3315, 82 L.Ed.2d 556 (1984).

The Park Service contends (A) that the Club lacks standing because any future injury to the club would be a purely economic competitive injury which is not within the zone of interests to be protected by NEPA or NHPA; (B) that the Club lacks standing in its representative capacity based on injury to its members; and (C) that any future injury would be "self-inflicted," as well as "conjectural and speculative," and therefore not fairly traceable to the actions of the defendant.

A. Zone of interests

The Park Service characterizes the Club's claim as one solely for an alleged "competitive injury" to purely economic interests outside the zone of interests sought to be protected by NEPA and NHPA. Purely economic interests do not fall within the zone of The APA, 5 U.S.C. § 702, grants federal court standing to any "person suffering legal wrong because of agency action, or adversely affected or aggrieved by agency action within the meaning of a relevant statute." The Supreme Court has interpreted this to require that the "interest sought to be protected by the complainant is arguably within the zone of interests to be protected or regulated by the statute or constitutional guarantee in question." Association of Data Processing Service Organizations, Inc. v. Camp, 397 U.S. 150, 153, 90 S.Ct. 827, 25 L.Ed.2d 184 (1970).

interests to be protected by NEPA or NHPA. Western Radio Services Co. v. Espy, 79 F.3d 896, 902-03 (9th Cir.) ("NEPA's purpose is to protect the environment, not the economic interests of those adversely affected by agency decisions.") (quotations omitted), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 117 S.Ct. 80, 136 L.Ed.2d 38 (1996).

"To find that the [plaintiff's interests] do not fall inside the 'zone of interests' protected by NEPA, we would have to find that (1) the [plaintiff's] interests are inconsistent with the purposes of NEPA, and that (2) the interests are so inconsistent that it would be unreasonable to assume that Congress intended to permit the suit." Douglas County v. Babbitt, 48 F.3d 1495, 1500 (9th Cir.1995), cert. denied, 516 U.S. 1042, 116 S.Ct. 698, 133 L.Ed.2d 655 (1996).

The Club urges that its interests at stake are not merely economic but include such other interests as the preservation of their historic building and its surrounding environment, and that these interests fall within the zone of interests of environmental quality and historic preservation sought to be protected by the statutes. Because the zone of interests test is "not a demanding one," Chief Probation Officers of Cal. v. Shalala, 118 F.3d 1327, 1331 n. 2 (9th Cir.1997), and the asserted interest need only be "arguably within the zone of interests to be protected or regulated by the statute," Data Processing, 397 U.S. at 153, 90 S.Ct. 827 (emphasis added), a rough correspondence of interests is sufficient.

The Park Service characterizes the Club's purpose, defined in its incorporation papers, as limited to "socializing and gathering to play the sport of golf." The 1919 Articles of Incorporation provide that the "purposes for which [the Club] is formed are to acquire, improve and maintain grounds and buildings for athletic purposes and to acquire and maintain a club house for social intercourse among its members...." NEPA's stated purposes include: "To declare a national policy which will encourage productive and enjoyable harmony between man and his environment; to promote efforts which will prevent or eliminate damage to the environment and biosphere and stimulate the health and welfare of man...." 42 U.S.C. § 4321.

Congress enacted NHPA based on its findings that "the historical and cultural foundations of the Nation should be preserved as a living part of our community life and development in order to give a sense of orientation to the American people." 16 U.S.C. § 470(b)(2). NHPA was enacted to "encourage the public and private preservation and utilization of all usable elements of the Nation's historic built environment." 16 U.S.C. § 470-1(5).

The Club's stated purpose to "improve and maintain...