Blog Post < Previous | Next >
Tong
County Planners try to deny residents their legal right to comment on the SFD Final EIR
The County is once again flouting the law and attempting to reduce public participation in its decision making by arbitrarily limiting the allowable time for public comment.
The following letter has been sent to Marin County Planner Dan Dawson, protesting the County's improper truncation of the public comment period for the Final EIR for the Sir Francis Drake Boulevard Rehabilitation Plan.
READ THE FINAL EIR DOCUMENTS HERE
Dear Mr. Dawson:
In your recent public notice, dated March 26, 2018, you state that “The Final Environmental Impact Report (FEIR) for the Sir Francis Drake rehabilitation project has been released for public review” and that “The comment period for the FEIR runs through Monday, April 9. The FEIR will be heard at a public hearing at the Board of Supervisors meeting on May 8th.”
This letter is to put you on notice that the date of your closing of public comment is both arbitrary and in conflict with state law.
Please note the following:
Under Code of Civ. Pro. Section 1094.5 and Pub. Res. Code Section 21168, judicial review of a CEQA decision considers the record of the administrative proceedings. Thus, any evidence before the agency before it makes its final decision is part of the administrative record. Sierra Club v. Coastal Comm'n (2005) 35 Cal 4th 839. At this point the record is still open as the County has not made its decision and the County has not closed public comment. Nor could the County do that. The County will take oral public comment at any decision making hearing to approve the FEIR and thus, the County must also consider any written comments, prior to that decision.
Therefore, the time limit you have set for the public on comments on the FEIR (April 9, 2018) appears to have no basis. While the County can certainly request that comments be submitted at a certain date, so that they can be responded to before the Board meets, the April 9 date does not appear related to the Board's meeting date of May 8 nor is the decision on the FEIR in any way imminent on April 9th.
In any case, given that the Board's decision record will include all comments made before its decision, the County's limitations of comments appears to be intended to mislead and convince the public to not submit comments after April 9th. This is contrary to state law and impinges on the public’s ability to review the voluminous documents and comment on this very important planning decision.
As such, then, your public notice is improper and must be reissued to clarify to the public that they are welcome to submit comments up to and during the public hearing by the Board of Supervisors on May 8, 2018.
Let this letter then serve as notice of our demand that you reissue the public comment notice, immediately, correcting the misstatements and notifying the public that their comments are welcomed up to and including the hearing date, May 8, 2018.
Sincerely,
Bob Silvestri – President
Cc: Matthew H. Hymel, Katie Rice, Dennis Rodoni
Bob Silvestri is the founder and president of Community Venture Partners, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit community organization funded only by individuals in Marin and the San Francisco Bay Area. Please donate the CVP to help us continue to work on the public’s behalf.