San Francisco Baykeeper v. City of Newark

San Francisco Baykeeper and Citizens Committee to Complete the Refuge filed a lawsuit in California Superior Court asking the court to set aside the City of Newark’s certification of a final environmental impact report (FEIR) under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) for the Mowry Village Project, as well as related approvals for the residential development, which would include 203 single-family detached homes. The alleged shortcomings in the environmental review included a failure to adequately analyze the issue of “coastal squeeze,” which the FEIR defined as “the loss of natural habitats or deterioration of their quality arising from placement of structures along the shoreline, preventing landward transgression of those habitats that would naturally occur in response to sea level rise.” The petitioners alleged that the FEIR failed to respond to scientific papers submitted in public comments “that emphasize coastal squeeze’s threat to natural habitats from the prevalence of coastal infrastructure such as the Project’s coastal armoring and associated flood control infrastructure,” and also failed to address the Regional Water Quality Control Board’s comments regarding how the Project would exacerbate coastal squeeze. Another issue identified by the petitioners was an alleged failure to describe and analyze components of the project that would provide protection against sea level rise; the petition alleged that those components “have significant implications for how sea level rise effects could be managed or exacerbated by the Project, and themselves have potentially significant effects not analyzed by the EIR.” In addition, the petitioners alleged that the FEIR did not address the risk of groundwater rise mobilizing hazardous materials.