ELR Citation: 42 ELR 20027
No(s). C064875 (Cal. App. 3d Dist. Jan 20, 2012)

A California appellate court reversed a lower court decision upholding a county's adoption of an oak woodland management plan and mitigation fee program without preparing an environmental impact report (EIR) under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). The county issued a negative declaration for the plan and fee program, thereby dispensing with the requirement of an EIR under CEQA. The negative declaration was premised on a program EIR that the county completed in 2004 when it formulated its general plan. But although the 2004 program EIR did anticipate the development of an oak woodland management plan and fee program, it did not provide the county with guidance in making the discretionary choices that served as the basis for the plan or fee program at issue here. Specifically, the program EIR did not set the fee rate, how the acreage subject to the fee rate should be measured, or how the off-site oak woodland losses would be mitigated by the fees. Accordingly, the county was required to prepare a tiered EIR before its adoption of the oak woodland management plan and implementation of a mitigation fee.