No Slo Transit, Inc. v. City of Long Beach

Petitioners appeal from a judgment of the superior court finding that the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission (LACTC) did not abuse its discretion in certifying as adequate an environmental impact report (EIR) for the Los Angeles to Long Beach Rail Transit Project (the Project). LACTC would route the Project along Long Beach Boulevard in the City of Long Beach.

Petitioners are businessmen owning interests along Long Beach Boulevard. They assert that the chosen routing will adversely affect their businesses. Petitioners acknowledge that the EIR examined an exhaustive variety of environmental issues, but they challenge the documentation, the study process, the decision of LACTC, and the trial court’s ruling.

Facts

We set forth the facts in considerable detail in order to make disposition of the numerous issues raised by petitioners easier to understand.

In November 1980 the voters of Los Angeles County approved Proposition A, which authorized a one-half cent sales tax to fund construction and operation of rail transit systems to serve various transportation corridors in Los Angeles County. In 1982, LACTC formally designated the Project as the first of the 13…