State High Court Grants Review Of CEQA Case

Cox, Castle & Nicholson partner Michael Zischke was quoted in an April 23, 2012 article about the California Supreme Court granting review in a case that involves whether California State University San Diego should have to pay for traffic improvements related to a major campus expansion.

According to the article, the project would add more than 11,000 students to the university's 208-acre campus. Local government and transit officials sued the university accusing it of violating the California Environmental Quality Act after it said it could not afford to pay for the improvements, but planned to move forward anyway.

Zischke told the newspaper that the case raises some interesting issues.

"At a time when so many public agencies, state and local, are having budget troubles, how far you have to go to demonstrate that mitigation is economically infeasible is a really important question," he said. "Does that mean you have to go into your education budget? It's particularly troubling for the university but I think it will have implications for public agencies generally."