Stone v. Board of Supervisors

Statement of the Case

Appellants own property near the Sonora Mining Corporation (SMC) gold mine in Tuolumne County. They challenge the trial court’s denial of their petition for writ of mandate to set aside the decision of the Tuolumne County Board of Supervisors (Board) declaring SMC in compliance with the liability insurance condition of their use permit.

The basic issue before this court is whether the Board’s decision constituted a de facto amendment of SMC’s use permit thereby requiring a formal amendment and compliance with the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). 1 We hold that it does not and affirm the judgment.

Statement of Facts

In 1984 the Board certified an environmental impact report (EIR) and approved a use permit for SMC to mine gold in the Mother Lode area of Tuolumne County. The use permit was subject to certain conditions designed to mitigate the potential adverse environmental effects of the project. Condition 17 stated: “The sponsor agrees to maintain in full force and effect for the entire period of its operations under this permit a policy of liability insurance acceptable to the County in the amount of at least $40,000,000.00. Such…