Community Environmental Advocates v. City of Grass Valley

The California Court of Appeal found that an environmental impact report (EIR) prepared pursuant to CEQA for a mixed-use development on the site of a former mine had a deficient analysis of air quality. The court rejected challenges to other aspects of the environmental review, including an argument that the EIR should have evaluated the impact on greenhouse gas emissions of traffic generated by the project. The court found that the plaintiffs forfeited this argument by failing to support it with meaningful analysis or record citations. The approved project’s only identified significant and unavoidable impact was related to greenhouse gas emissions, and the court found that the plaintiffs forfeited challenges to the sufficiency of the evidence supporting the statement of overriding considerations that explained why it determined the project’s benefits outweighed this unavoidable significant effect.