Dear Friends,
Below are some suggested arguments for you to include in your letter or email to the City Councilmembers or to speak about during the Public Comment section starting at 7:00 PM this coming Monday, December 9th in the Library.
Send your letters before noon on Monday, December 9th to:
Lafayette City Council
c/o Joanne Robbins
Goals for Monday’s City Council Meeting: The proposed Third Amendment to the Tolling Agreement should be:
Save Lafayette and Lafayette’s residents have already presented multiple legal arguments against the Terraces application, particularly in April and May 2018, with an emphasis on the inconsistency with the General Plan and the zoning of the property
There are multiple legal flaws in the developer’s theory that processing of the application and that the applicable General Plan designation and zoning were indefinitely frozen effective January 22, 2014.
The developer’s CEQA application of July 29, 2013, did not substantively address the actual data and environmental impacts, instead of proceeding on an unsupported theory of discrimination.
The standard of review on CEQA documents is based on data and substantial evidence. The record amply supports the original EIR certified by the City in 2013. Extending multiple extensions of time over a period of what will soon be 7 years for what should have been a 90-day statute of limitations is absurd, particularly when the weakness of the O’Brien Land petition is considered.
The City is now proceeding with a review of a supplemental EIR process (which we will address elsewhere) based on the EIR certified in 2013. The finality of the 2013 document should be established. It is wasteful and misleading to the public to invest time and money, and public attention, in a document which is not final.
The spectacle of these multiple extensions of up to 7 years to a developer who, without merit, continually threatens and bullies the City is to be contrasted with the City’s approach to issues raised by ordinary Lafayette citizens. In Save Lafayette Trees v. City of Lafayette (2019), the Court rejected the City’s attempt to argue for a special 60-day limitation on challenges by its own citizens. Perhaps the Council would like to explain why it does not afford its own citizens the deference given to O’Brien Land.