Judge orders EIR on Craig project (Adobe Press)

Friday October 31, 2003

By Adobe Staff

An environmental impact report will be required for Ken Craig's housing project on Willow Road as the result of an Oct. 21 ruling by Superior Court Judge Donald G. Umhofer.

Save the Mesa, a local environmental group, filed a lawsuit last year seeking to require an EIR on the county General Plan amendment that granted a zoning change on the property.

The zone change would allow Craig to develop 1-acre home sites where 5 acres had been the minimum lot size.

"All we were asking was that the county follow the law," said Dan Feilmeier, a Save the Mesa board member. "We sought no monetary damages, just compliance with the law."

Save the Mesa members based their lawsuit on the California Environmental Quality Act, which requires an EIR whenever a discretionary project may have a "significant and adverse physical effect on the environment."

Instead of ordering an EIR, the county adopted a "negative declaration" on the zone change, indicating it would not have a significant effect on the environment so no EIR was required.

In its lawsuit, Save the Mesa specifically questioned the adequacy of roads in the area and water for the site that is zoned for agriculture.

Umhofer agreed an EIR was warranted, saying, "The adoption of a negative declaration was an abuse of discretion."

The ruling requires the EIR to be completed before the county gives final approval for the General Plan amendment.

Craig could not be reached for comment and by press time had not returned a call left at his office.

Craig has proposed building 16 homes on the property and has offered to donate 21 acres of the land to Lucia Mar Unified School District as a site for a new school. Lucia Mar was among those named in Save the Mesa's lawsuit, along with the county, the Board of Supervisors and Craig.

Recently, the County Subdivision Review Board voted to let Craig forgo filing a parcel map so he could create a public lot to be donated to Lucia Mar.

Save the Mesa Vice President Ed Eby said his group filed an appeal of the Subdivision Review Board decision, and that appeal will probably be heard by the Board of Supervisors in three to four months.

He said Save the Mesa appealed the approval because members didn't believe the board should have acted while the lawsuit was in the courts.

"We were anticipating we would win this lawsuit, and that's why we appealed," Eby said. "We wanted them to wait until the court made its decision." Δ