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meehyun kurtzman
Another MCA Court Victory! Honorable Judge Chernus denies the county’s motion to vacate
To Marin Citizens:
As we informed you in our last update… When the Superior Court ruled in favor of the MCA and set aside the 2012 Housing Element (HE) SEIR, the county said (Marin IJ reported) the victory was theirs and the traffic issue raised was a minor issue. Then on July 6th, the County filed a Motion to Vacate the judge’s ruling. In essence the county disagreed with the judge’s decision and wanted the Court to issue a different ruling. They filed their reasons; we filed our response.
On August 7th the judge told the county that his decision stands! And he was very firm in his response to the county as to why their arguments did not hold water. You can read those docs here Chernus' Ruling
What’s next? Here are the options:
A. The county could appeal the decision.
B. MCA could appeal the decision in order to permanently throw out SEIR as inadequate.
C. The county could do the Superior Court ordered traffic study to replace the inadequate one they used in the old 2012 HE plan.
For the moment, the SEIR and the 2012 HE are LEGALLY SET ASIDE. This keeps the rampant urbanization of Marin County at bay as the BOS scrambles to address the judge’s requirements. The current HE 2015-2023 is relying on this SEIR so this could impact any development plans that rely upon the SEIR for gifts of density. Therefore, this may be a chance for Marin's citizens to legally challenge the current HE on grounds other than CEQA.
Your support has kept us going this far. We and our attorney Michael Graf have put in countless hours to protect our beautiful Marin heritage from overdevelopment and political greed.
As we anticipate the likely filing of Appeals by the deadline of Sept 9th, MCA needs your help now to be able to continue with these incredible legal victories.
We need your donations to help us raise $5,000.
DONATE to help MCA make a lasting difference for a better Future for Marin!
Meehyun Kurtzman
MCA Team
SEIR (Supplemental Environmental Impact Report) click here for the site list in Marin with pre-approved high density zoning.