First Baptist Church of Downey v. Morales

Filed 7/18/06 First Baptist Church of Downey v. Morales CA2/4

NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN THE OFFICIAL REPORTS

California Rules of Court, rule 977(a), prohibits courts and parties from citing or relying on opinions not certified for publication or ordered published, except as specified by rule 977(b). This opinion has not been certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 977.

IN THE COURT OF APPEAL OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA

SECOND APPELLATE DISTRICT

DIVISION FOUR

APPEAL from a judgment of the Superior Court of Los Angeles County, David P. Yaffe, Judge. Affirmed.

Richard D. Salyer for Plaintiffs and Appellants.

Hamburg, Karic, Edwards & Martin, Gregg A. Martin and David M. Almaraz for Defendants and Respondents.

Petitioners First Baptist Church of Downey and Shepherd Development filed a petition for writ of administrative mandate to compel the City of Downey to set aside a conditional use permit granted to real parties in interest Marcos Morales and Retail Plus. Petitioners alleged that the City approved the permit in violation of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA, Pub. Resources Code, § 21000, et seq.)[1] The superior court denied the petition on the ground that petitioners had not filed their mandate petition within the limitation period prescribed by section 21167, subdivision (b) -- 30 days after the filing of the City's notice of determination and the posting of the notice by the county clerk. Petitioners appeal from the judgment denying their petition. We affirm.

BACKGROUND

Before summarizing the relevant facts, we put them in context by briefly reviewing CEQA's statutory scheme. CEQA requires a local or state public agency to prepare an environmental impact report (EIR) for any project that may have a significant effect on the environment. (Gentry v. City of Murrieta (1995) 36 Cal.App.4th 1359, 1371 (Gentry).) â€