North County Advocates v. City of Carlsbad CA4/1

— Real Parties in Interest Plaza Camino Real, LP, and CMF PCR, LLC (collectively, Westfield), proposed to renovate a shopping center originally built in the City of Carlsbad (City) over 40 years ago. The City approved Westfield’s request to renovate a former Robinsons-May store and other small portions of the shopping center (the project). North County Advocates (Advocates) challenged the City’s approval under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA; Pub. Resources Code, § 21000 et seq.), arguing the project’s environmental impact report (EIR) used an improper baseline in its traffic analysis because it treated the Robinsons-May store as fully occupied, even though it was vacated in 2006 and had been only periodically occupied since. Advocates also argued the City violated CEQA by failing to consider as a mitigation measure that it require Westfield to make a fair share contribution to the future widening of the El Camino Real bridge over State Route 78 (the bridge) and by failing to respond adequately to public comments regarding traffic mitigation. The trial court rejected Advocates’s CEQA challenges and awarded the City costs for staff time spent reviewing and…