Cleveland National Forest Foundation v. County of San Diego

The California Court of Appeal reversed a trial court and found that two California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) thresholds of significance adopted by San Diego County were not supported by the record. The thresholds exempted “infill” projects proposed within the County’s unincorporated villages and projects expected to generate no more than 110 automobile trips per day from the vehicles-miles-traveled (VMT) analysis used to determine the significance of transportation-related environmental effects such as greenhouse gas emissions in CEQA reviews. The appellate court agreed that the infill threshold was not supported by substantial evidence showing that infill development under local conditions would generally be VMT-insignificant. The court rejected the County’s contention that a California Air Pollution Control Officers’ Association publication on mitigating greenhouse gas emissions and VMT provided substantial evidence supporting the County’s infill threshold. The appellate court also found that the County made “no effort” to develop evidence that small projects would likely cause a less than significant transportation effect in San Diego but instead relied on a recommendation from the Governor’s Office of Planning and Research that was based on statewide data.