Friends of Sierra Railroad v. Tuolumne Park & Recreation District

Tuolumne Park and Recreation District, a public agency, sold land containing a disused but historic railroad right-of-way to the Tuolumne Band of Me-Wuk Indians without carrying out any environmental review pursuant to the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). The Tuolumne Band owned surrounding property and was known to plan on developing it, but had never presented any development plans to any agency. The trial court denied a petition for a writ of mandamus directing the transferor agency to reverse its action. In this appeal, appellant Friends of the Sierra Railroad argues that the transfer fell within CEQA’s definition of a “project” requiring environmental review because it was reasonably foreseeable that the land would be developed and the development would have an impact on the historical resource. We hold that the transfer was not a project requiring CEQA review because, although some development of the property surrounding the historical resource was reasonably foreseeable, review of conceivable impacts on the historical resource itself would have been premature in the absence of any concrete development proposals. The judgment is affirmed.

FACTUAL AND…