City of Long Beach v. City of L. A.

*28 *470 Defendants City of Los Angeles et al. 1 and real party in interest BNSF Railway Company (BNSF) appeal a judgment granting consolidated petitions by government and public interest entities 2 to set aside certification of the final environmental impact report (FEIR) relating to, and approval of, the proposed construction by BNSF of a new railyard approximately four miles from the Port of Los Angeles. 3 Environmental analysis of the project dates back to at least 2005. The administrative record exceeds 200,000 pages, the FEIR exceeds 5,000 pages, and the trial court's opinions dealing with the multitude of issues raised below exceed 200 pages.

Appellants challenge the trial court's conclusion that the FEIR is deficient because *29 it fails to analyze the impact of rendering capacity at BNSF's existing Hobart yard in the City of Commerce, some 24 miles from the port, available to handle additional traffic, arguing that the project description in the FEIR is misleading and that the FEIR fails to adequately analyze the indirect and growth-inducing impacts of the project. Appellants also dispute the trial court's conclusions that the analysis of the project's impacts on noise,…