The city of Santa Maria, Santa Maria City Council members, and Santa Barbara County could be heading to court over the Union Valley Parkway project after being sued on April 17 by local environmental group Orcutt Citizens for Better Environment (OCBE) and two local residents.
On April 15, OCBE and Frank and Pat Culley filed a writ of mandate in the Santa Barbara County Superior Court challenging the Santa Maria City Council’s March 17 decision to approve the environmental impact report for the project.
The final goal of the project is to create a major transportation artery connecting the Orcutt area to Highway 101 by extending the Union Valley Parkway interchange across Highway 135 to Blosser Road.
The suit claims approval of the project violates the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) because the EIR on which the City Council based its decision “falls below CEQA’s minimum standards.”
The EIR, the suit said, failed to properly analyze the environmental impacts of the project—hazards such as traffic, noise, and air pollution—and also failed to consider “environmentally superior” alternatives. The suit also claimed that the city failed to give the public enough time to review the draft EIR, and didn’t include in the draft viable comments from the public in a timely manner. OCBE and the Culleys are asking the court to set aside the project and approvals based on the alleged CEQA violation.
In an interview with the Sun, City Attorney Gil Trujillo said the city plans to “aggressively defend the lawsuit” and expects to “prevail based on the merits of EIR.”
“We’re confident that the EIR is adequate,” Trujillo said, adding that the project, which has been in the works for almost 40 years, has been subjected to extensive environmental analysis.
This article appears in Apr 23-30, 2009.