CEQA Alert: CA Supreme Court Clarifies Duties of State Agencies in Funding Off-Site Mitigation

On August 3, the California Supreme Court released its second CEQA decision of 2015, addressing a key issue for state agencies undertaking projects that require off-site environmental mitigation. In City of San Diego v. Board of Trustees of the California State University (SC Case No. S199557) (“City of San Diego”), the Court clarified that a state agency may not reject as infeasible off-site mitigation via fair-share payment solely due to the lack of appropriations earmarked for that purpose by the State Legislature. In doing so, it affirmed the Court of Appeal’s decision directing the Board of Trustees of the California State University (“CSU Board”) to vacate its certification of an EIR for a major expansion of the San Diego State University (“SDSU”).

In 2007, the CSU Board prepared an environmental impact report and campus master plan revision (“EIR”) proposing several major construction projects on the SDSU campus (“the project”). The EIR identified significant cumulative traffic impacts at several off-campus locations in San Diego, and it estimated the project’s average “fair share” contribution to mitigate the increased congestion at 12 percent. However, the CSU Board stated that it could not commit to paying that fair share, because it was not certain whether the California Legislature would appropriate funding specifically for that purpose. For this reason, the CSU Board found that mitigation of the traffic impacts via fair-share payment was infeasible, and that the traffic impacts were therefore significant and unavoidable. The CSU Board certified the EIR based on a statement of overriding considerations.

In a unanimous opinion penned by Justice Werdegar, the Supreme Court revisited the Court’s decision in another case involving the CSU Board’s approval of a campus expansion project, City of Marina v. Board of Trustees of California State University (2006) 39 Cal.4th 341 (“Marina”). In Marina, which was also authored by Justice Werdegar, the Court held that the CSU Board’s duty to mitigate impacts extended beyond the boundaries of the campus, and that if it could not adequately mitigate those impacts by performing acts on the campus, “then to pay a third party . . . to perform the necessary acts off campus may well represent a feasible alternative.” However, the Court also noted that “[ ] a state agency’s power to mitigate its project’s effects through voluntary mitigation payments is ultimately subject to legislative control; if the Legislature does not appropriate the money, the power does not exist.” 

In the instant case, the CSU Board relied on the italicized language above in determining that the uncertainty of earmarked appropriations by the Legislature rendered mitigation by fair-share payment infeasible. The Supreme Court held that, in doing so, the CSU Board had erroneously interpreted Marina, for a number of reasons:

1. The italicized language is “dictum” that appeared in a paragraph in the decision that “imagines possible limitations on our holding that the Board shared with other agencies the responsibility to mitigate the off-site environmental effects of its project.”
2. The Marina dictum “is simply an overstatement,” as a public agency “has access to all of its discretionary powers and not just the power to spend appropriations.” Moreover, in the case of CSU, the agency has some discretion over use of general support appropriations for capital projects and has access to non-state funds.
3. Neither CEQA nor any other decision interpreting the statute suggests that mitigation costs for a project funded by the Legislature cannot be included in the project’s budget and paid for with funds appropriated for the project.
4. No provision of CEQA “conditions the duty of a state agency to mitigate its projects’ environmental effects on the Legislature’s grant of an earmarked appropriation.” Moreover, the Legislature has expressly subjected the CSU Board’s decisions on campus master plans to CEQA, including the requirement for mitigation of environmental impacts.
5. CEQA draws no distinction between on-site and off-site environmental impacts. Public agencies are required to mitigate or avoid significant effects of a project on the “environment,” which is defined as “the physical conditions which exist within the area which will be affected by a proposed project.” If on-site mitigation measures can be funded through the project budget without an earmarked appropriation (as the CSU Board had determined in the EIR), “then so too can off-site mitigation measures.”

In addition, the Court noted that “unreasonable consequences” would follow from the CSU Board’s interpretation of Marina, and CEQA’s “fundamental statutory directive” would be impaired. Finally, the Court rejected three new arguments presented by the CSU Board, finding that Education Code sections 67504 and 66202.5 and Government Code section 13332.15 did not support the Board’s determination.

Overall, the City of San Diego decision provides welcome clarity on an important and recurring issue of CEQA interpretation that the Court itself had created with the Marina decision.

-- Don Sobelman

For more information, contact Don Sobelman at (415) 228-5456 or des@bcltlaw.com.