Chawanakee Unified School District v. County of Madera

INTRODUCTION

Chawanakee Unified School District (School District) filed a petition for writ of mandate challenging the County of Madera’s (County) approval of a development project on the grounds that the project’s environmental impact report (EIR) failed to comply with the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) (Pub. Resources Code, § 21000 et seq.) 1 and that the project’s specific plan failed to meet the consistency requirement of California’s Planning and Zoning Law (Gov. Code, § 65000 et seq.). The trial court denied the petition. School District appealed.

In the published portion of this opinion, we address (1) the meaning of a statutory provision that states capped development fees and certain other provisions “shall be the exclusive methods of considering and mitigating *1020 impacts on school facilities that occur or might occur as a result” of approval of the development of land (Gov. Code, § 65996, subd. (a)) and (2) the effect of this provision on the contents of an EIR. Because these issues of statutory construction are pure questions of law, however, the facts and proceedings in this case are not published.

In the unpublished portion of this opinion,…