RECENT CALIFORNIA DECISIONS

November 2007

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Second District Court Applies Vineyard Principles for the First Time in Approving County’s Water Supply Analysis
Santa Clarita Organization For Planning The Environment, et al. v. County of Los Angeles, Newhall Land And Farming Company

On September 25, in Santa Clarita Organization for Planning the Environment v. County of Los Angeles (SCOPE), the Court of Appeal for the Second Appellate District upheld the County of Los Angeles’s environmental impact report for the West Creek subdivision project (West Creek EIR). The sufficiency of the water supply analysis in the West Creek EIR was the primary issue on appeal, and the court applied, for the first time, the water analysis principles established earlier this year by the Supreme Court in Vineyard Area Citizens for Responsible Growth, Inc. v. City of Rancho Cordova, 40 Cal.4th 412 (2007). In addition, the decision acknowledges the finality of a water transfer to Castaic Lake Water Agency (CLWA) that has been subject to litigation for almost 10 years.