Since 2011, Jim Moose and Tiffany Wright have represented Friant Ranch LP, proponents of the Friant Ranch Specific Plan, in three CEQA lawsuits over the EIR for that project. After vigorously defending the cases in the trial court, Mr. Moose and Ms. Wright helped their client settle two of the three cases. The third lawsuit resulted in a 2018 decision by the California Supreme Court, Sierra Club v. County of Fresno, which requires that air quality analyses in EIRs attempt to substantively connect air quality impacts to likely health consequences. Mr. Moose and Ms. Wright continue to represent Friant Ranch, LP, on remand from the Supreme Court.

Berths 226236 [Everport] Container Terminal Improvements Project. Andee Leisy and Laura Harris assisted the Los Angeles Harbor Department’s Environmental Management Division and consultant team with preparation of an Environmental Impact Report/Environmental Impact Statement, prepared pursuant to CEQA/NEPA for the expansion and related improvements of the Everport/Evergreen terminals at the Port of Los Angeles. Ms. Leisy and Ms. Harris reviewed and commented on administrative draft sections of the EIR/EIS and assisted with responses to comments. The Board unanimously certified the EIR as adequate on October 19, 2017. Although numerous comments were received on the Draft EIR/EIS from environmental groups, no litigation was filed. RMM is also assisting the Port with numerous environmental documents as part of its Marine Oil Terminal Engineering and Maintenance (MOTEMs) improvement program. Andee Leisy and Tiffany Wright are the lead RMM attorneys for the Port.

Andee Leisy and Sabrina Teller represent the City of Los Angeles as outside CEQA and land use counsel in over a dozen cases involving a wide variety of development projects, ranging from small infill residential subdivisions to schools to large downtown redevelopment projects. In 2016 and 2017, Andee Leisy assisted with successfully defending the City’s approval of the “Archer Forward: Campus Preservation and Improvement Plan” and related environmental impact report prepared for the expansion and improvement of an independent, all-girl, college preparatory and performing arts school located off Sunset Boulevard. In 2017, Sabrina Teller and Nathan George assisted with successfully defending the Martin Expo Town Center project, a mixed-use redevelopment of a prominent site one block from Metro’s new Expo/Bundy station in west Los Angeles. Over 100 of the development’s 516 apartments will be set aside as workforce-level and very-low-income housing.

333 S. La Cienega is a mixed-use, environmentally-sustainable residential and transit-oriented building, located at the gateway between Los Angeles and Beverly Hills. The project will offer 145 state-of-the-art units for rent, 10% of which will be designated affordable housing, and provide a wide array of community benefits. The project is one of the first in the state to qualify for the CEQA exemption for transit priority projects created by SB 375. Whit Manley and Tiffany Wright are the lead RMM attorneys for the applicant, Caruso Affiliated.

Bay area affordable housing developer Resources for Community Development obtained entitlements in 2010 for a 49-unit senior affordable housing project in Martinez. The one-acre downtown infill project intended for seniors with chronic health issues and at risk for homelessness was challenged by a group of neighbors contesting the City’s use of statutory exemptions from CEQA for qualified housing projects and projects consistent with specific plans, and CEQA’s categorical exemption for infill housing. The neighbors claimed the project was not consistent with local plans and could adversely affect nearby potentially historic resources. The City developed a strong record during the administrative approval process, and Sabrina Teller was successful in defeating a petition for a writ of mandate. The project was completed in 2014.

RMM has represented the Yuba County Water Agency in multiple matters involving the federal Endangered Species Act, NEPA, and CEQA since the early 2000’s. Chip Wilkins currently represents the Agency as an Intervenor-Defendant in a case involving a challenge to a Biological Opinion regarding Central Valley spring-run Chinook salmon, Central Valley steelhead, and southern Distinct Population Segment of North American green sturgeon (“green sturgeon”) on the Yuba River. In November 2017, Mr. Wilkins represented YCWA in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California at a hearing on the parties’ cross-motions for summary judgment in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California and received a favorable ruling. The case is currently pending in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.

The Tahoe City Lodge would redevelop an existing commercial complex into a 118-unit lodge that would include a mix of hotel rooms and 1- and 2-bedroom suites, hotel amenities, and parking, as well as redevelopment of the existing clubhouse building and new shared-use parking at the Tahoe City Golf Course.  The Lodge project was approved in a joint EIR/EIS with the PCTBAP, a Placer County-initiated update to its land use regulations that apply in the Tahoe Basin. Whit Manley and Chip Wilkins represented the ownership group in obtaining entitlements and approvals for the lodge and the Placer County Tahoe Basin Area Plan (PCTBAP) from Placer County and the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency in 2016 and 2017 respectively.  Mr. Manley and Mr. Wilkins represented the ownership group in a lawsuit challenging the EIR/EIS for the project. They settled the case on favorable terms for their client and the project is moving forward.

The Homewood Mountain Resort Ski Area Master Plan was approved by Placer County and the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency in 2012. The Master Plan will guide the redevelopment of the ski resort into a mixed-use north base area, a residential south base area, and a mid-mountain lodge with beginner ski area. Whit Manley and Chip Wilkins represented the ownership group in obtaining entitlements and approvals and also defended them in federal and state litigation over the adequacy of the EIR/EIS for the project. The litigation was eventually settled. The project is scheduled to break ground in 2018.

The Tahoe Regional Planning Agency, comprised of representatives from the State of California and Nevada, approved its Regional Plan Update in 2012. TRPA adopted the plan update as the general governing document for development and environmental protection in the Lake Tahoe region. TRPA was sued following its certification of a final EIS for the plan update. Whit Manley and Chip Wilkins successfully defended the Environmental Impact Statement and TRPA’s approvals relating to the plan update in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California and Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, culminating in Sierra Club v. Tahoe Regional Planning Agency, 840 F.3d 1106 (9th Cir. 2016).