Sacramento Kings Win Again; Second CEQA Challenge Rejected
“The Court of Appeal for the Third Appellate District of California has ruled in favor of the City of Sacramento with regard to a series of challenges brought under CEQA (California Environmental Quality Act) to certification of an EIR and approval of a project to build a new arena in downtown Sacramento. The project involves a partnership between the City and Sacramento Basketball Holdings LLC to build a downtown arena at which the Sacramento Kings will play. To facilitate the timely opening of a new downtown arena, the Legislature modified several deadlines under CEQA by adding section 21168.6.6 to the Public Resources Code. Section 21168.6.6 also allows the City to exercise limited eminent domain powers to acquire property for the project before its environmental review, but does not substantively alter other CEQA requirements. The court held that the City had not prematurely committed itself to the project; the EIR was not deficient for failing to address the remodel of the existing Sleep Train arena; the traffic analysis was not deficient; the failure to study “crowd safety” did not implicate CEQA; and trial court orders may be reviewed only by writ petition, not direct appeal.
The court first ruled that the City did not prematurely commit itself to approving the project before completing its environmental review. Saltonstall argued that the City had committed itself to the project before completing the EIR process because, before the EIR was certified and approved on May 20, 2014: (1) the City and Sacramento Basketball Holdings entered into, and the city council approved, a preliminary, non‑binding term sheet outlining the terms of the transaction; and (2) the City exercised eminent domain to acquire a portion of a block for the site of the downtown arena.”
Preacher, Maria. National Law Review 10 March 2015.