City of Redding v. Shasta County Local Agency Formation Commission

City of Redding (Redding), plaintiff below, appeals from a judgment of the Shasta County Superior Court dismissing Redding’s petition for writ of mandate and injunctive relief following the sustaining without leave to amend of the demurrer of defendant Shasta County Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCO). The sole issue on appeal is whether LAFCO had a duty to prepare an environmental impact report (EIR) under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA; Pub. Res. Code, § 21000 et seq.) before approving an annexation proposal submitted to LAFCO by the City of Anderson (Anderson). (All further undesignated statutory references are to the Public Resources Code.) We shall conclude LAFCO had no duty to prepare an EIR. We shall therefore affirm the judgment.

Factual and Procedural Background

Redding is located on the north side of the Sacramento River and Anderson is on the south side.

The two cities are litigious neighbors. Over the past several years, the cities have frequently disagreed about land use planning matters, and they have pursued numerous lawsuits in the Shasta County Superior Court and in this court. This appeal involves an attempt by Anderson to annex…