Friday, March 20, 2015

Highway 1 widening, CEQA lawsuit denied


But, what does it matter when 1) Pacificans for a Scenic Coast, 2) Pacificans for Highway 1 and 3) the Center for Biological Diversity together have now filed two (2) separate Federal lawsuits against our Highway 1 widening. See Pacifica Riptide/Peter Loeb, 3/19/15,"PSC and PH1A Take Legal Action Against Caltrans." Here.  These ideologues must really hate the rest of us, and our civilization!

Pacifica Tribune/Jane Northrop, Staff Writer, 3/17/15. "Tentative decision reached in CEQA highway widening case."
Image result for Highway 1 traffic, Pacifica, CA picture
Right, protest all city progress, file CEQA
lawsuits. Delay, and if even one violation,
NIMBY attorneys win, taxpayers lose.

Image result for Highway 1 traffic, Pacifica, CA picture
Traffic, traffic. 10-30 years later,
fix the problem already.
"San Mateo County Superior Court Judge Marie Weiner tentatively denied the claims in the CEQA lawsuit brought by Pacificans for a Scenic Coast about the proposed widening of Highway 1.
The Calera Creek Parkway project seeks to widen Highway 1 from Fairway Park to Rockaway by adding an additional traffic lane, a shoulder and a bike lane on each side. Still up for determination is an additional landscaped median or a narrower median strip in the Calera Creek Parkway plans. For discussion purposes only, Pacifica City Council favors the landscaped median strip.

In a tentative decision written March 10, Judge Weiner denied the Petition for Writ of Mandate alleging violations of CEQA in the environmental impact report (EIR) Caltrans prepared for the Calera Creek Parkway project. The injunction Pacificans for a Scenic Coast sought against the EIR was similarly tentatively denied and adjudicated in favor of Caltrans."  Read article.
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Reference - California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA).  State of California Natural Resources Agency. " What is CEQA? CEQA, or the California Environmental Quality Act, is a statute that requires state and local agencies to identify the significant environmental impacts of their actions and to avoid or mitigate those impacts, if feasible."   Wikipedia,  .... "CEQA does not directly regulate land uses, but instead requires state and local agencies within California to follow a protocol of analysis and public disclosure of environmental impacts of proposed projects and adopt all feasible measures to mitigate those impacts. CEQA makes environmental protection a mandatory part of every California state and local agency's decision making process."

Note photographs:  highway traffic by Bob Pilgram from Pacifica Riptide,2/15/15,"Pacifica's weekend beach traffic from Hell."  Protest of highway modernization from the anti-highway widening PH1A group, article by Peter Loeb Pacifica Riptide, 3/29/14, "Pacificans for Highway 1 alternatives petition City Council."  Looks like John Keener, now councilmember, 3rd from the left.

Posted by Kathy Meeh