Schellinger Brothers v. City of Sebastopol

It is probably a truism that since adoption of the California Environmental Quality Act (Pub. Resources Code, § 21000 et seq. ; CEQA) in 1970, every developer has at some point before construction starts ground his teeth or clenched her fists in frustration while enduring the often lengthy process leading to certification of an environmental impact report (EIR) for the proposed project. This appeal shows that frustration is not enough to justify premature judicial action that would short-circuit the decisionmaking process intended by CEQA.

In Sunset Drive Corp. v. City of Redlands (1999) 73 Cal.App.4th 215 [ 86 Cal.Rptr.2d 209 ] (Sunset Drive), the Court of Appeal held that a cause of action could be alleged to warrant issuance of a writ of traditional mandate under Code of Civil Procedure section 1085 compelling action by a city council that was refusing to make a decision on whether to certify an EIR. The developer here has seized upon Sunset Drive to support the extraordinary proposition—apparently advanced in earnest for the first time since CEQA was enacted—that a court is authorized to issue a writ of administrative mandamus to compel a city council to certify a…