ELR Citation: 43 ELR 20084
No(s). A135593 (Cal. App. 1st Dist. Apr 12, 2013)

A California appellate court affirmed a lower court decision allowing a park district to go forward with its condemnation action to help complete a shoreline park and trail but ordering the district to prepare an environmental impact report under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). The district approved a resolution of necessity to condemn eight shoreline acres of a landowner's property to help complete the Eastshore State Park and to construct a segment of the San Francisco Bay Trail. In so doing, it concluded that the project was exempt from CEQA review. The landowner filed a petition, arguing that the project was not exempt from CEQA and that the district should set aside its resolution of necessity. But the lower court instead ordered the district to vacate only its CEQA exemption finding, permitting the district to leave its resolution of necessity intact and proceed with its condemnation action. The landowner appealed, arguing that the remedy improperly allows the district to conduct after-the-fact environmental review of an already approved project. But despite the landowner's arguments to the contrary, the lower court did not err in refusing to set aside the resolution of necessity in its entirety, and the district's finding that the prerequisites for eminent domain were satisfied was not an abuse of discretion.