Los Angeles Unified Sch. Dist. v. City of Los Angeles

The Los Angeles Unified School District petitioned for a writ of mandate compelling the City of Los Angeles to vacate its resolution approving a development plan for the area of the San Fernando Valley known as Warner Center. The petition challenged the sufficiency of the environmental impact report (EIR) on which the city relied in approving the plan. We conclude that the evidence in the record does not support the EIR’s finding the plan will have no significant impact on traffic noise at Canoga Park High School and Parkman Junior High School and the EIR is inadequate for failing to discuss whether air conditioning and that filtration are feasible measures for mitigating increased air pollution under the plan. Therefore we reverse the trial court’s denial of a peremptory writ of mandate and remand the matter to the trial court for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.

Facts and Proceedings Below

Warner Center in the San Fernando Valley is bounded by Vanowen Street to the north, De Soto Avenue to the east, the Ventura Freeway to the south and Topanga Canyon Boulevard to the west. Between 1970 and 1984 the City of Los Angeles (the City) adopted several land…