Los Angeles--Environmentalists in this greenest of places call the California Environmental Quality Act the state's most powerful environmental protection, a model for the nation credited with preserving lush wetlands and keeping condominiums off the slopes of the Sierra Nevada.
But increasingly, the landmark law passed in 1970 has also been abused, opening the door to lawsuits - sometimes brought by business competitors or for reasons unrelated to the environment - which, regardless of their merit, can delay even green development projects for years or sometimes kill them completely.
"Something is broken," said Leron Gubler, president of the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce. "A lot of jobs could have been saved if not for these lawsuits, as well as new jobs once these projects were completed."
Gubler said lawsuits and the threat of litigation had delayed at least seven recent projects in Hollywood, costing the area more than 6,000 jobs.
In one of those Hollywood projects, the developers of a mixed-use retail and residential project won a lawsuit against its building plans, but the owners declared bankruptcy and sold before the ruling. Work has finally begun under new ownership, but another lawsuit has been filed......
.....And it is not only big projects that are litigation targets......
Last month, Michael J. Rubio, a Democrat in the state Senate, introduced a bill that would have overhauled enforcement of the law. Although the bill was killed within 24 hours, he said he would try again next year.
...."It wasn't reform: It was gutting the law," said David Pettit, a lawyer with the Natural Resources Defense Council. "The California Environmental Quality Act as we've known it for many years protecting the environment would go away in favor of a checklist approach."...
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
