Citizens for Ceres v. City of Ceres

After conducting an environmental review, the City of Ceres (city) approved the development of a shopping center anchored by a Walmart Supercenter to replace an existing Walmart store. Citizens for Ceres (Citizens) filed a petition for a writ of mandate in the trial court pursuant to the California Environmental Quality Act (Pub. Resources Code, § 21000 et seq.) 1 (CEQA), alleging several defects in the environmental documents *240 the city certified when it approved the project. The trial court denied the petition and Citizens appeals.

Citizens makes four arguments: (1) The environmental impact report (EIR) certified by the city did not mandate adequate mitigation measures for the urban decay impact of the project; (2) the EIR did not sufficiently analyze the project’s impacts on landfill and recycling facilities and did not mandate adequate mitigation measures for those impacts; (3) the EIR failed to contain adequate information correlating the project’s air pollution impacts with resulting effects on human health; and (4) the city’s statement of overriding considerations, a document that explains how the project’s benefits will outweigh its significant and unavoidable…

Concurring.— *

A petition for a rehearing was denied October 4, 2016, and the opinion was modified to read as printed above.

See footnote, ante, page 237.