Developer Jay Paul Abandons Project in Palo Alto

By Jason Green 12/20/2013 Mercury News Group

Citing the “political climate” in Palo Alto, Jay Paul Co. has withdrawn its application to build a new office complex and public safety building along one of the city’s busiest thoroughfares.

The San Francisco-based developer notified the city of its decision in a letter Monday. It didn’t go into details, but a preliminary traffic analysis and community backlash against large projects may have played a role.

CLICK HERE for the full San Jose Mercury News story.

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City Council Meeting Oct 8_Butchers Corner and Peery Park EIR

Community advocates are requesting your participation in the Oct 8th City of Sunnyvale Council 7:00pm Meeting.

Butcher’s Corner is 4th on the agenda – Discussion and Possible Action on Adoption of Resolutions to Approve the Annexation. The staff recommends Council find the project is categorically exempt from CEQA and postpone the annexation. 

CEQA has been a huge benefit, not a detriment, in California

By Steve Blank, Courtesy San Jose Mercury News Sept 10, 2013

The battle is still brewing in Sacramento over the future of the California Environmental Quality Act, known as CEQA. Political pundits correctly predicted it would be the most bruising fight of the session. Many large companies in Silicon Valley have found themselves on the same side as oil refineries and big-box stores which want to gut CEQA.

Every major environmental organization in the state, including the California League of Conservation Voters, Natural Resources Defense Council and Sierra Club, is on the other side. Recently, Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, offered a solution in the form of SB 731 that would force both sides to make concessions. It was dismissed out of hand by those who would like to see CEQA destroyed.

Click here for the full Mercury Article.

Supremes Will Hear Case in Neighbors for Smart Rail v Expo Construction Authority

Courtesy LA.Streets.Blog.org Damien Newton August 8, 2012

The California State Supreme Court will hear the case of Neighbors for Smart Rail (NFSR), a coalition of Westside homeowners, community groups and businesses, against Phase II of the Expo Line.  NFSR alleges that the environmental documents for the line were improperly compared because it based traffic on future projections instead of the current status on the street.

Phase II of the Expo Line will eventually connect the existing Expo Line, which runs from Downtown L.A. to Downtown Culver City, all the way to Santa Monica. Construction of the line is already underway.

Sunnyvale West Citizens Shut Down the Mary Ave Bridge Extension Project

Congratulations Sunnyvale West citizens! Gopal Patangay just relayed the word . . . “GOOD NEWS! Today in the council meeting the motion 1.H – RTC 12-055 to ‘Reject Proposal to Prepare Revised Environmental Impact Report (EIR) and Associated Analysis of Mary Avenue Extension Project’ (F1006-118) is passed with 7-0 vote by the Sunnyvale City Council. At last The Mary Ave. Extension Project is a history.”

In Sunnyvale West v City of Sunnyvale Council, a state superior court ruled that the city’s environmental review of a road extension violated state law because it based it’s review on traffic projections for 2020 instead of current conditions.

This news is very motivating and encouraging to communities that unite and oppose City Projects and illegal environmental impact reports. The Sunnyvale West Decision, as a result of a California Environmental Quality Act CEQA lawsuit, has made an impact throughout the state courtrooms, most recently influencing the win of Madera Oversight Coalition, Inc. v. County of Madera.

Community Advocates ~ take note: you can win!

Court’s Ruling Forces School District to Reconsider Plans for Lighted Stadiums

By Matt Wilson Posted: 12/20/2011 mwilson@community-newspapers.com

The Fremont Union High School District will have to re-evaluate its plans for nighttime football games at Monta Vista and Lynbrook high schools.

A Santa Clara County Superior Court judge has ruled that the district’s certification of an environmental impact report did not properly analyze and mitigate the noise that could come from two proposed track and field renovations at both schools. Both projects will be on school property, mere feet from residential back yards.  

Problems Piling Up High-Speed Rail Study: Tunnel Impractical

By Tracy Seipel: San Jose Mercury News
tseipel@mercurynews.com
11/15/2011

High-Speed Rail Authority confirms engineering challenges, but push to
go underground won’t die. Add one more to the ever-expanding list of problems facing California’s grand plan for high-speed rail: It can’t go underground in San Jose, the backers of the system say.

Concepts of a station and track alignment for high-speed rail at the Diridon site in downtown San Jose. (California High Speed Rail Authority and Newlands & Company, Inc (NC3D)) Courtesy San Jose Mercury News

Echoing previous studies, a report released Monday by the California High-Speed Rail Authority concluded that there is no viable tunnel option to accommodate high-speed trains below downtown’s Diridon Station.  

High-Speed Rail: Judge Again Orders Peninsula Route Scrapped

San Jose Mercury News, 2011-11-11
By Mike Rosenberg
mrosenberg@mercurynews.com

Once again, a judge on Thursday ordered the state to scrap its plans to zip high-speed trains from Gilroy to San Jose and up the Peninsula, saying officials failed to show how the massive route would harm local traffic and homes.

An artist's rendering of the proposed high-speed rail line station_Courtesy LA Times

Even so, the California High-Speed Rail Authority signaled it would reapprove the route along the Caltrain corridor after completing more studies to appease the judge. That could trigger yet another lawsuit, extending a three-year long legal battle against the polarizing $99 billion bullet train project.

The cities of Palo Alto, Menlo Park and Atherton don’t want the elevated tracks to divide their communities, create an eyesore and lower property values. So they sued in October 2010 to ax the Bay Area route for the San Francisco-to-Los Angeles line. They prefer a railroad that would run through the East Bay and across the Dumbarton Bridge to San Francisco. 

PAMF EIR Oral Arguments Heard Today in the 6th Court of Appeals

The oral arguments for the Palo Alto Medical Foundation PAMF and City of Sunnyvale City Council Environmental Impact Report EIR Lawsuit were heard this morning in the 6th District Court of Appeal with Associate Justice Patricia Bamattre-Manoukian presiding.

The complaints address the inadequacy of General Plan Discussion for the three Kenny Court Residential Homes to become part of the medical facility, improper traffic and noise baseline , and improper construction mitigation for the nearby residential homes influenced by nearly 2 1/2 years of construction noise that exceeds the City of Sunnyvale Noise Ordinance.

In fact, the initial indicators of a required PAMF EIR, according to John Schwarz, of David J Powers & Associates,  in an email, warned Sunnyvale Planners Gerri Caruso and Trudi Ryan 9/19/08 of “given the proximity of the residential uses, the HIGH construction levels anticipated and the duration of exposure to those levels . . . ”

The purpose of an Environmental Impact Report EIR under the California Environmental Quality Act CEQA is to disclose the impacts to those not involved in the decision-making process as well as mitigate to avoid or significantly lessen the impacts.

Take a look at this plywood fence that Sacramento Attorneys Trainor Fairbrook consider “good enough!” for noise mitigation, egad! Additionally, wouldn’t it be reasonable to include the massive underground structure in the PAMF EIR analysis? It is not.

Per Court Order, Sunnyvale City Council Decertifies Mary Avenue Extension Project

By Alia Wilson, Sunnyvale Sun Posted 06/29/2011

awilson@community-newspapers.com

As ordered by the Superior Court, the Sunnyvale City Council decertified the Mary Avenue Extension Project environmental impact report and project approval Tuesday night, three years after it was originally approved.

The action followed a lawsuit filed by the Sunnyvale West Neighborhood Association in 2008 that contested the approval and adequacy of the EIR. The project was for a proposed bridge at the north end of Mary Avenue at Almanor Avenue. The bridge to the Moffett Business Park was designed to allegedly mitigate part of the traffic effects of the Moffett Towers.