Sep. 13, 2012
Edward J. Casey
See more on Edward J. CaseyAlston & Bird LLP Los Angeles Land use Specialty: California Environmental Quality Act review/entitlements/litigation
Casey said he knew he'd have an uphill battle to get the second phase of the largest mixed-use project in the Westside of Los Angeles back on track.
Known as Playa Vista, the project - comprised of 2,600 residential units and 150,000-square-feet of commercial space - has had a long history.
Challenges to the project under the California Environmental Quality Act resulted in two appellate opinions issued in 2005 and 2007 invalidating certain aspects of the environment impact report.
The following year, Casey and his team "came on the scene" to represent the developer Playa Capital Co. LLC.
"We were tasked with revising, improving and hopefully bulletproofing the environmental documents for approval," he said. "We knew that the opponents would pursue litigation to the highest level, and we knew that we'd end up in the same court of appeal that had made two adverse rulings."
In addition to the defects identified by the appellate court, Casey decided to focus on an issue not raised in the two prior appellate opinions - the possible rising of the sea level due to global warming - in anticipation of new challenges to the revised environmental impact report.
"The project is two miles from the ocean and has a very comprehensive system to take water away from the project in an environmentally green way," Casey said.
Moreover, he argued that CEQA doesn't require an analysis of that type of issue, which he said is "outside the scope of the project."
"CEQA is not meant to be a panacea to resolve all environmental problems," Casey said.
This time around, in a published decision, the same appellate panel "who didn't like my client in 2005 and 2007, agreed with us - that CEQA doesn't require that kind of analysis," Casey said. Ballona Wetlands Land Trust v. City of Los Angeles, B231965.
In March, the state Supreme Court declined to review a challenge to the November 2011 appellate opinion.
As a result of the ruling, the state Natural Resources Agency is in the process of revising CEQA's guidelines to make them clearer, Casey said, adding, "It's causing a lot of different stakeholders to weigh in on how to rewrite them."
Meanwhile, Casey said, "The project is moving forward and is under construction."
- PAT BRODERICK
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