Aptos Residents Ass'n v. Cnty. of Santa Cruz

*609 *1042 Appellant Aptos Residents Association (ARA) challenges the superior court's denial of its petition for a writ of mandate under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) ( Pub. Resources Code, § 21000, et seq. ). ARA's petition challenged the approval by respondent County of Santa Cruz (the County) of a microcell transmitter project proposed by real party Crown Castle (Crown). Crown's project originally proposed to install 13 microcell transmitters as part of a Distributed Antenna System (DAS). These *1043 microcells would be placed on utility poles, primarily in the public right of way, 1 in the Day Valley area, a rural portion of unincorporated Aptos. The County concluded that Crown's DAS project was categorically exempt from CEQA and rejected ARA's claim that an exception to the exemption applied.

On appeal, ARA contends the County abused its discretion by (1) finding that the exemption applied because it failed to consider the entire project and instead improperly segmented the project by considering each microcell individually, (2) failing to consider information submitted by ARA that AT & T was interested in putting cell transmitters in the Day Valley area…