RMM represented retail developer Donahue Schriber during the environmental review process for, and litigation over, the Rocklin Crossings Retail project, located on Interstate 80 and Sierra College Boulevard in the City of Rocklin. Encompassing 55 acres, the project includes a Walmart as an anchor tenant and a Bass Pro Shop as another major tenant. The litigation over the project involved issues focused on urban decay, traffic impacts, air quality, and greenhouse gas emissions.

RMM has provided advice on CEQA and land use issues to the City of Santa Cruz since 1998. During that time period, RMM has assisted City staff and consultants with the preparation of environmental documents for major projects such as the City’s Beach and Laurel Area Plan, the City’s General Plan, and a proposed desalination plant that could be built and operated in tandem with the Soquel Creek Water District.

RMM worked as outside counsel to the landowner group that obtained approval of the Sierra Vista Specific Plan (SVSP) from the City of Roseville in 2010.  The SVSP covers a 1,624-acre area and authorizes the development of a mix of land uses, including 6,650 residential units, approximately 215 acres of commercial and office uses, approximately 60 acres of public/quasi-public, 267 acres of open space uses, 14 acres of paseos, and 90 acres of parks.

In the several years leading up to the Great Recession of 2008, the Elk Grove Unified School District was the second-fastest growing school district in California, and had to build several high schools, middle schools, and elementary schools to keep up with population growth in its service area. During that time period, RMM actively assisted the District with various environmental documents, including EIRs for joint high school/middle school complexes and mitigated negative declarations for elementary schools. In doing this work, RMM had to apply not only general CEQA principles, but also provisions of CEQA and the Education Code specific to school siting issues.

In 2013, the passage of Senate Bill 4 (Pavley) required the Department of Conservation (DOC) and its Division of Oil, Gas & Geothermal Resources (DOGGR) to prepare an EIR on the subject of “well stimulation” in California. “Well stimulation” includes, among other activities, “hydraulic fracturing,” commonly known as “fracking.” The Office of the Governor of California retained RMM to provide advice to the DOC and DOGGR in connection with the statutorily-mandated EIR. As required by statute, DOGGR certified this EIR on July 1, 2015, and Jim Moose continued thereafter to work with the state on issues related to the implementation of Senate Bill 4.