Upland Community First v. City of Upland

Reversing a trial court, the California Court of Appeal concluded that substantial evidence supported the City of Upland’s finding pursuant to the California Environmental Quality Act that a 201,096-square-foot warehouse/parcel delivery service building would not have significant impacts on greenhouse gas emissions. The appellate court found that substantial evidence both supported the use of a 3,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent per year (MTCO2e/year) quantitative threshold for significance and showed that the project’s emissions would be below this threshold. The court did not consider the project developer’s alternative arguments that substantial evidence supported use of a 10,000 MTCO2e/year threshold or that consistency with the Upland Climate Action Plan demonstrated that the project would not have significant impacts on greenhouse gas emissions. In addition, the appellate court rejected the petitioner’s claim that the City undercounted the number of vehicles and vehicle trips the project would generate and therefore understated the impact the project would have on traffic, transportation, air quality, and greenhouse gas emissions.