Lay of the Land
. . . there’s something new on “Reverse CEQA.” We discussed in a prior “Lay of the Land” post the Court of Appeal’s decision that the Bay Area Air Quality Management District cannot require an EIR simply because existing air contaminants may impact a project’s future users or residents. The Air District asked the Court of Appeal to reconsider its decision, arguing that it was improper to order the Air District to revise its thresholds to comply with the Supreme Court’s earlier holding that CEQA is ordinarily concerned with a project’s impact on the environment, and not the environment’s impact on the project.
On September 9, the Court of Appeal modified its published opinion to explain further why it rejected the Air District’s arguments. The Court held that the Air District’s thresholds of significance, which suggested a “routine analysis of whether new receptors will be exposed to specific amounts of toxic air contaminants,” needed to be revised “given the clarity of the Supreme Court’s decision that such an analysis oversteps the bounds of CEQA except in specified circumstances.”
The case will now return to the trial court for the issuance of a writ of mandate compelling revision of the thresholds.