June 11, 2018 | Category: California, CEQA, Land Use, Lawsuit

This case involved the City of Santa Rosa’s approval of a CUP to convert a shuttered hospital center to a homeless youth and transitional housing center with about 50 to 60 beds. The center was sponsored and funded by a non-profit organization, which would also provide counseling and health services and recreational activities at the new center. Division 4 of the First District Court of Appeal published its decision for Jensen v. City of Santa Rosa (A144782) in May 2018, affirming the lower court’s ruling that the City was not required to prepare an EIR for the hospital conversion project.

Project opponents, consisting of neighbors, objected to the project. Opponents’ attorney submitted a letter to the city shortly prior to the CUP approval hearing, which cited noise studies conducted for a different project in the city. Project opponents then suggested that the hospital conversion project could result in potentially significant noise impacts due to outdoor recreational activities, such as basketball. Project opponents also took issue with the methodology employed by the City’s noise consultant to estimate the project’s potential noise impacts.

The First District rejected the project opponents’ arguments, finding them insufficient to meet the fair argument standard. For example, the court was unconvinced by the opponents’ attempts to extrapolate noise values from a noise study prepared for an entirely different project. In addition, the appellate court characterized the alternative methodology and subsequent calculations presented by project opponents as “opinions rendered by nonexperts, which do not amount to substantial evidence.” Thus, the City’s decision to proceed with the project via a negative declaration was proper.

This is an important published case reaffirming the quality of evidence required to support a fair argument under CEQA. However, this case also presented a sympathetic fact pattern for the City, and the project opponents did not hire any experts of their own. Lead agencies and project applicants should consider their particular circumstances carefully before proceeding with a negative declaration or MND in the face of project opposition.