On August 3rd, the California Supreme Court ruled that plans by the California State University to expand to accommodate 107,000 additional students over the next few years cannot lay the burden of off campus environmental effects on local communities.
The CSU Board declined to use any of its expansion budget to reimburse other public agencies to mitigate the off-campus environmental effects of the expansion. The Board cited City of Marina v. Board of Trustees of California State University (2006) 39 Cal.4th 341 (Marina) when making this decision. However, the California Supreme Court disagreed and ruled that CSU is in fact responsible for mitigating all impacts, no matter where they occur.
While the case was between the City of San Diego and CSU, the ruling affects all future CSU campus expansion plans across the state.
Stuart Flashman, attorney for the Hayward Area Planning Association, says the ruling means that “CSU has got to take responsibility for the impact it creates”.
More information can be found in the court’s ruling and on SFGate.com.