Concerned Dublin Citizens v. City of Dublin CA1/3

Government Code section 65457 provides an exemption from environmental review for a residential development that is consistent with a broader specific plan for which an environmental impact report previously has been certified. This appeal challenges the determination by respondents City of Dublin and the City Council of the City of Dublin (collectively, the city) that the proposed development of a 7.2-acre parcel by real party in interest AvalonBay Communities, Inc. (AvalonBay), within a larger Dublin Transit Village Center development (transit center), for which an environmental impact report was previously prepared and certified, qualifies for that exemption. We find no error in the city’s application of the exemption and therefore shall affirm the judgment denying appellants’ petition for a writ of mandate.

Factual and Procedural History

The transit center is “a high-density mixed-use, transit and pedestrian-oriented development” adjacent to Bay Area Rapid Transit’s East Dublin/Pleasanton station. As stated in the 2002 plan for the transit center, the objective of the larger project is, among other things, to “1) Construct[] a state-of-the-art, urban-scale,…