CEQA Judge's Lament: "Something Is Very Wrong With This Picture"
- William Fulton
- May 24, 2022
- 5 min read
After 48 years of wrangling, Marin County is negotiating with a property owner over possible purchase of a spectacular 110-acre parcel of land in Tiburon. The negotiation comes after an appellate court upheld Tiburon’s recent reluctant approval for a 43-unit subdivision. The appellate court’s ruling was written by veteran Justice James Richman, who concluded his 110-page analysis of the California Environmental Quality Act by saying, “Something is very wrong with this picture.”
“The dispute is almost as old as CEQA itself,” Richman wrote as part of an extensive tirade against CEQA. “CEQA was meant to serve noble purposes, but it can be manipulated to be a formidable tool of obstruction, particularly against proposed projects that will increase housing density.”
Unless local open space advocates appeal the ruling to the California Supreme Court, Richman’s ruling would appear to be the end of the line for the property on the southern tip of the Tiburon Peninsula, which the advocates have dubbed “Easton’s Point”. The Martha Company put the property on the market in 2018 for over $100 million but has since dropped its price to around $60 million. Martha and the Trust for Public Land are now engaged in a joint appraisal of the property.
If the case does go to the Supreme Court, Richman is essentially daring the justices to draw a bright line on CEQA delays.
The court case revolved around the question of whether Tiburon’s CEQA analysis was boxed in by two federal court stipulated judgments, one dating back to 1976.