Schaeffer Land Trust v. San Jose City Council

Schaeffer Land Trust (hereafter, Schaeffer) appeals from an adverse judgment on its petition for a writ of mandate and complaint for injunctive relief. Schaeffer seeks to set aside two amendments to the general plan of the City of San Jose (hereafter, City) adopted by the San Jose City Council (hereafter, City Council). It primarily argues that the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) requires preparation of an environmental impact report (hereafter, EIR) rather than a negative declaration for the amendment pertaining to property referred to as the golf course and that the EIR prepared for use in considering the amendment pertaining to property referred to as the school is inadequate because it fails to study the cumulative effect of traffic which would result from both amendments. Schaeffer secondarily argues that the amendments are invalid because they violate City’s general plan, transgress CEQA’s critical threshold for health and safety (§ 21000, subd. (d)), and were adopted without compliance with a duty under Government Code section 65030.2 to prepare a cost/benefit study. The real parties in interest are the developers and landowners of the golf course and…