In Friends of the College of San Mateo Gardens v. San Mateo County Community College District, the Supreme Court today gives more latitude to public agencies in determining whether project changes require a new environmental impact report (EIR) (after an EIR was prepared for the original project) or a first EIR (when no previous EIR was prepared because a negative declaration was adopted for the original project). The Court of Appeal had concluded that changes to a project were a new project and an EIR was thus necessary. In a unanimous opinion by Justice Leondra Kruger, the Supreme Court holds that the need for an EIR is not based “on any abstract characterization of the project as ‘new’ or ‘old,'” but, rather, on a determination of “whether the previous environmental document retains any relevance in light of the proposed changes and, if so, whether major revisions to the previous environmental document are nevertheless required due to the involvement of new, previously unstudied significant environmental impacts.”
The court reverses the First District, Division One, Court of Appeal. It also disapproves (although not expressly) of a 2006 decision by the Third District Court of Appeal, and agrees with a 2007 decision by the Second District, Division Two.
