Sierra Watch v. County of Placer

BACKGROUND

I Factual Background In 2011, Squaw Valley Real Estate LLC (Squaw) proposed a project titled the Village at Squaw Valley Specific Plan, which involves a proposed development on about 94 acres in Olympic Valley (formerly known as Squaw Valley). Shortly after, the County began environmental review for the project under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), and in 2015, the County released a draft document, called an Environmental Impact Report or EIR, analyzing the project’s potential impacts. Several parties afterward expressed concern over the County’s analysis of the project’s environmental impacts, including Sierra Watch and the California Attorney General. According to the Attorney General, the County’s EIR insufficiently analyzed project impacts from increased vehicle use in the Lake Tahoe Basin. The Attorney General’s office initially expressed these concerns in August 2016 in a formal comment letter, and later, in early November 2016, it reiterated these concerns in an e-mail to County counsel. In the e-mail, the deputy attorney general assigned to the matter offered to speak with County staff about her office’s concerns but warned that, absent…