A Covina-based nonprofit filed a California Environmental Quality Act petition to review a Corona warehouse construction project in Riverside Superior Court Jan. 27.
The Supporters Alliance for Environmental Responsibility specifically challenges Corona’s granting of a grading permit Dec. 13, and of a development plan review permit Oct. 3, 2019. The petition claims the city improperly exempted both from CEQA’s requirements.
The city’s assessment found the project ministerial, and therefore exempt from CEQA, because it did not require issuance of discretionary permits by the city, according to the city’s preliminary exemption assessment.
The planned warehouse on a 7.18 acre property at 210 Radio Road, at the junction of Route 91 and Interstate 15, would have 86,501 square feet of warehouse space, 47,600 square feet of manufacturing space, 10,000 square feet of office space, 16 loading spaces and 227 auto parking stalls, according to the assessment.
CEQA exempts ministerial projects from its requirements, but defines ministerial projects based on either the public agency’s determinations, or by actions such as building-permit issuances and business-license issuances.
Discretionary clauses in the city’s municipal code make the project discretionary, the petition argues.
“Any application for a grading permit shall comply with CEQA by demonstrating with
sufficient information that the proposed grading will not cause significant harm to the
environment or that the environmental mitigation measures imposed through a prior and
applicable CEQA review have been or will be completed as conditions to the grading permit,” the municipal code reads.
The city’s ability to shape projects under development plan reviews also provides discretionary authority that triggers CEQA review, the petition argues.
The nonprofit referenced a functional test established in the 1987 case Friends of Westwood, Inc. v. City of Los Angeles, wherein, if “the agency possesses enough authority to deny or modify the proposed project on the basis of environment [sic] consequences the EIR might conceivably uncover, the permit process is ‘discretionary’ within the meaning of CEQA.”
The petition prayed for the project’s approval to be declared null and void and for the permits to be ruled as subject to CEQA, and for peremptory writs of mandate directing the city and the real parties in interest to stop furthering the project until they comply with CEQA.
Richard Drury and Victoria Yundt of Oakland’s Lozeau | Drury LLP
Riverside Superior Judge Sunshine Sykes is assigned to the case.
The next hearing is March 28.
Case No. CVRI2200382
Read the petition here.
