Cases & Developments

Opinion vacating and remanding for dismissal. Save Berkeley’s Neighborhoods (SBN) challenged a plan by the University of California, Berkeley to construct new residential and academic space and to expand its enrollment, asserting that the University’s review of the plan’s environmental impact did not meet the requirements for the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). The trial court granted a writ of mandate ordering the University to decertify its Supplemental Environmental Impact Review (SEIR), void the construction plan, and suspend further increases to enrollments, and the California Supreme Court declined to review or stay the writ. California then passed Senate Bill 118 shifting the focus of the CEQA from enrollment to campus population and limiting the remedies available if a court finds an impact review deficient. The Regents also certified a new Environmental Impact Review. On appeal, the California Court of Appeals held that Senate Bill 118 and the new EIR mooted SBN’s challenge.