Cleveland Nat'l Forest Found. v. San Diego Ass'n of Governments

*421 I

INTRODUCTION

A

After the San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG) certified an environmental impact report (EIR) for its 2050 Regional Transportation Plan/Sustainable Communities Strategy (transportation plan), CREED-21 and Affordable Housing Coalition of San Diego filed a petition for writ of mandate challenging the EIR's adequacy under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) ( Pub. Resources Code, § 21000 et seq. ). 1 Cleveland National Forest Foundation and the Center for Biological Diversity filed a similar petition, in which Sierra Club and the People later joined.

The superior court granted the petitions in part, finding the EIR failed to carry out its role as an informational document because it did not analyze the inconsistency between the state's policy goals reflected in Executive Order S-3-05 (Executive Order) and the transportation plan's greenhouse gas emissions impacts after 2020. The court also found the EIR failed to adequately address mitigation measures for the transportation plan's greenhouse gas emissions impacts. Given these findings, the court declined to decide any of the other challenges raised in the petitions.

SANDAG appealed,…

Our Supreme Court in Cleveland National Forest Foundation v. San Diego Association of Governments (2017) 3 Cal.5th 497 , 504, 220 Cal.Rptr.3d 294 , 397 P.3d 989 ( Cleveland II ), held that defendant San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG) did not abuse its discretion by refusing in a 2011 environmental impact report (EIR), which accompanied its 2050 Regional Transportation Plan and Sustainable Communities Strategy (Plan), to engage in an analysis of consistency of projected 2050 regional greenhouse gas (GHG) emission impacts with the state-wide reduction goals set forth in a 2005 Executive Order issued by then Governor Schwarzenegger.

*448 In reaching its decision, the Supreme Court noted that the majority's November 24, 2014 opinion, as modified on December 16, 2014 ( Cleveland National Forest Foundation et al. v. San Diego Association of Governments et al. (2014) ---Cal.App.4th ----, 180 Cal.Rptr.3d 548 [nonpub opn.] ( Cleveland I )), identified additional alleged deficiencies in the 2011 EIR other than the consistency analysis of GHG emission impacts out to 2050. ( Cleveland II , supra , at p. 519, 220 Cal.Rptr.3d 294 , 397 P.3d 989 .) With respect to these alleged…