City of Irvine v. County of Orange

I. INTRODUCTION

This is the third effort by the City of Irvine (Irvine) to stop a proposed expansion of the James A. Musick Facility (the Musick Facility, sometimes called the Musick jail expansion) to reach this court. In City of Lake Forest v. County of Orange (Dec. 8, 2000, G023884) (nonpub. opn.) (Musick I), the Cities of Irvine and Lake Forest challenged the 1996 certification of an environmental impact report (EIR 564) involving a proposed expansion of the Musick Facility from about 1,200 beds to 7,584 beds. Four aspects of EIR 564 were targeted in Musick L (1) the loss of agricultural land attendant on the change of the facility from an “honor farm” to a relatively large jail facility; (2) the impact of the project on air quality; (3) the extra burdens on local government services in the area because of a need for extra police patrols and ambulances; and (4) the cumulative impact of the project in light of the planned—at the time—reuse of the adjacent El Toro Marine Air Station (the El Toro Base) as an international airport. In Musick I, this court overturned a trial court decision finding EIR 564 inadequate. We held EIR 564 did indeed adequately disclose the…