ELR Citation: ELR 20217
No(s). H032502 (Cal. App. 6th Dist. Aug 20, 2009)

A district court held that a city complied with the California Environmental Quality Act in approving a master plan for a project on city-owned greenbelt property. The project will have a significant effect on the habitat of the Santa Cruz tarplant due to the chosen alignment of a multi-use trail. The city nevertheless found that overriding considerations warranted approval. A conservation group filed a petition for review of the approval, arguing that the city's environmental impact report (EIR) failed to properly analyze feasible alternatives to the project. But the city analyzed a reasonable range of alternatives in the EIR, and there was no need to consider an off-site alternative for a multi-use trail that was merely a component of the larger project. In addition, the city was legally justified in rejecting environmentally superior alternatives as "infeasible" based on its determination that the alternatives were undesirable from a policy standpoint because they failed to achieve what the city regarded as primary objectives of the master plan. And the city's infeasibility findings were supported by substantial evidence. The court, therefore, affirmed a lower court's denial of the petition.