Vineyard Area Citizens v. City of Rancho Cordova
This land use case raises claims under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA; Pub. Resources Code, 21000 et seq.), the Planning and Zoning Law (Gov. Code, 65000 et seq.) and the public trust doctrine.
Vineyard Area Citizens for Responsible Growth, Inc. and others (collectively, petitioners) challenged the approval by Sacramento County (County) of a project proposed by AKT Development Corp. and others (collectively, Developer). The newly formed City of Rancho Cordova (City) succeeded to the Countys interest in this case and appears as the sole governmental respondent.
In our initial opinion agreed with the Developer that the CEQA arguments lack merit and we agreed with the City that the zoning and public trust claims lack merit. Accordingly, Court affirmed the judgment. The California Supreme Court granted review and concluded that some of the CEQA arguments had merit. (Vineyard Area Citizens for Responsible Growth, Inc. v. City of Rancho Cordova (2007) 40 Cal.4th 412 (Vineyard).) Accordingly, the cause was remanded to us for further proceedings consistent with this opinion. (Id. at p. 450.) Consistent with that directive, we remand with directions to the trial court to grant the petition for a writ of mandate to compel further environmental review, in accordance with the California Supreme Courts opinion.
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