Opinion ID: 1161804
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: The EIR's analysis of future activity and effects is inadequate under CEQA.

Text: The EIR before us defined the project as mov[ing] the School of Pharmacy basic science research units from the UCSF Parnassus campus to Laurel Heights. The building to which those research units are to be moved is approximately 354,000 square feet in size, but only 100,000 square feet are now available to UCSF because one-half of the building is occupied by the California Department of Transportation (CALTRANS) pursuant to a lease with the University that expires in 1990 with an option to extend tenancy until 1995. (A small portion of the building is leased to private tenants.) The EIR does not discuss the additional environmental effects, if any, that will result from UCSF's use of the remaining 254,000 square feet when it becomes available, perhaps as soon as 1990. (5a) The Association contends the EIR is inadequate because it fails to discuss the anticipated future uses of the Laurel Heights facility and the likely effects of those uses. The Regents contend they need not evaluate the effects of future uses because the Regents have not yet formally approved any particular use of the remaining space. [6] (6) CEQA requires that an agency determine whether a project may have a significant environmental impact, and thus whether an EIR is required, before it approves that project. ( No Oil, supra, 13 Cal.3d 68, 79, italics by court; Village Laguna of Laguna Beach, Inc. v. Board of Supervisors (1982) 134 Cal. App.3d 1022, 1026 [185 Cal. Rptr. 41].) This requirement is obvious in several sections of CEQA. For example, section 21081 refers to approval of a project for which an EIR has been completed, and section 21151 requires an EIR for a project an agency  intend [ s ] to carry out or approve. (Italics added.) The Guidelines provide even more explicitly that  Before granting any approval of a project subject to CEQA, every lead agency ... shall consider a final EIR.... (Guidelines, § 15004 subd. (a), italics added.) A fundamental purpose of an EIR is to provide decision makers with information they can use in deciding whether to approve a proposed project, not to inform them of the environmental effects of projects that they have already approved. If postapproval environmental review were allowed, EIR's would likely become nothing more than post hoc rationalizations to support action already taken. We have expressly condemned this use of EIR's. ( No Oil, supra, 13 Cal.3d at p. 79.) The Regents' view that their approval of a project is the predicate for an EIR stands this principle on its head. The Regents' view is also inconsistent with the related rule that significant cumulative effects of a project must be considered in an EIR. (§ 21083, subd. (b); Guidelines, § 15130, subd. (a); Bozung, supra, 13 Cal.3d at pp. 283-284; Environmental Protection Information Center, Inc. v. Johnson (1985) 170 Cal. App.3d 604, 624-625 [216 Cal. Rptr. 502].) The Guidelines explain that a discussion of cumulative effects should encompass past, present, and reasonably anticipated future projects.  (Guidelines, § 15130, subd. (b)(1)(A), italics added.) (7) We hold that a public agency's approval of a project or future portions of a project is not a prerequisite for an environmental impact report under CEQA. [7] (5b) The more important and difficult question is what circumstances require consideration in an EIR of future action related to the proposed project. A basic tenet of CEQA is that an environmental analysis should be prepared as early as feasible in the planning process to enable environmental considerations to influence project program and design and yet late enough to provide meaningful information for environmental assessment. (Guidelines, § 15004, subd. (b); No Oil, supra, 13 Cal.3d 68, 77, fn. 5.) The Regents correctly note that where future development is unspecified and uncertain, no purpose can be served by requiring an EIR to engage in sheer speculation as to future environmental consequences. ( Lake County Energy Council v. County of Lake (1977) 70 Cal. App.3d 851, 854-855 [139 Cal. Rptr. 176].) We agree that environmental resources and the public fisc may be ill served if the environmental review is too early. On the other hand, the later the environmental review process begins, the more bureaucratic and financial momentum there is behind a proposed project, thus providing a strong incentive to ignore environmental concerns that could be dealt with more easily at an early stage of the project. This problem may be exacerbated where, as here, the public agency prepares and approves the EIR for its own project. For that reason, `EIRs should be prepared as early in the planning process as possible to enable environmental considerations to influence project, program or design.' ( Bozung, supra, 13 Cal.3d at p. 282; Guidelines, § 15004, subd. (b).) The University's own Procedures for Implementation of the California Environmental Quality Act state, ... in planning for each University project, environmental concerns are taken into account as early as possible ... to influence project program and design. The correct answer to the question of how to balance these competing concerns is suggested by our opinion in No Oil, supra, 13 Cal.3d 68, in which the plaintiffs contended the trial court had erred in limiting the scope of the project at issue to the drilling of two exploratory oil wells and that the project should have been defined to include commercial oil production that would likely commence if the test wells were successful. The defendants argued that geologic information obtained from the two test wells was essential to the preparation of a meaningful EIR on the effect of future commercial production. ( Id., at p. 77, fn. 5.) Because we decided the case on other grounds, we did not determine whether the project had been properly defined, but we framed the issue as whether the public agency had sufficient reliable data to permit preparation of a meaningful and accurate report on the impact of commercial production. ( Ibid. ) We did not frame the issue in terms of whether the public agency or the project proponent had any definite plans for action after test drilling. (8) We hold that an EIR must include an analysis of the environmental effects of future expansion or other action if: (1) it is a reasonably foreseeable consequence of the initial project; and (2) the future expansion or action will be significant in that it will likely change the scope or nature of the initial project or its environmental effects. Absent these two circumstances, the future expansion need not be considered in the EIR for the proposed project. Of course, if the future action is not considered at that time, it will have to be discussed in a subsequent EIR before the future action can be approved under CEQA. This standard is consistent with the principle that environmental considerations do not become submerged by chopping a large project into many little ones  each with a minimal potential impact on the environment  which cumulatively may have disastrous consequences. ( Bozung, supra, 13 Cal.3d at pp. 283-284.) The standard also gives due deference to the fact that premature environmental analysis may be meaningless and financially wasteful. Under this standard, the facts of each case will determine whether and to what extent an EIR must analyze future expansion or other action. The draft EIR acknowledged that UCSF will occupy the entire Laurel Heights facility when the remainder of the space becomes available. In response to public inquiry as to plans for the facility, UCSF explained that it intends to use the facility for the School of Pharmacy's basic science group and UCSF's Office of the Dean. The EIR even estimated the number of faculty, staff, and students that will occupy the facility until 1995 (a total of 460 persons) and then afterward when the entire facility becomes available (860 persons). (5c) Under the standard we have announced, it is therefore indisputable that the future expansion and general type of future use is reasonably foreseeable. This is not the type of situation where it is unclear as to whether a parcel of land will be developed or as to whether activity will commence. For example, in No Oil, supra, 13 Cal.3d 68, whether commercial oil production would ever occur was entirely speculative. There is no doubt, however, that in this case there will be future use. The Regents' contention is only that they have not formally decided precisely how they will use the remainder of the building. That argument is beside the point. They have admitted that they intend to use the entire facility, and, in light of the record before us, it is reasonably foreseeable that the facility will be used primarily for the School of Pharmacy, more specifically, as a biomedical research facility. For example, the draft EIR states that if CALTRANS does not renew its lease in 1990, the site would be developed as a biomedical research facility, with cross disciplinary programs from all UCSF schools. The final EIR contains the following quote from a March 1986 public newsletter by UCSF's Chancellor: [A]fter consultation with the other schools, it became clear that with this move [i.e., the present project] the best use of the Laurel Heights site we could make, when it becomes fully available to us in 1995, would be to develop it as a biomedical research facility, with cross-disciplinary programs from all the schools. (Italics added.) The same newsletter stated that UCSF had made a final decision to move the School of Pharmacy to the Laurel Heights site and that UCSF was then in the midst of completing an Environmental Impact Report (EIR), which will deal not only with the School of Pharmacy component but the long range use of the building.  (Italics added.) The minutes of a May 1986 meeting of UCSF's Laurel Heights Campus Planning Committee state: There was a concern that the DEIR [draft EIR] did not discuss the program plans and impacts of the building after the Cal-Trans lease expires. Dean Goyan [School of Pharmacy] confirmed that the building will be dedicated primarily to biomedical research. There are no plans for extensive student activities or clinical activities to be located at the site after 1995. (Italics added.) There is more. In addition to these public disclosures, private correspondence makes clear the University's plan. In a May 1985 letter, the Pharmacy Dean asked the Chancellor for confirmation that the Laurel Heights facility would be committed to basic research. In November 1985, the Chancellor confirmed in writing that  at least 80 percent of the building after total occupancy by UCSF will be devoted to academic units primarily related to biomedical research. (Italics in original.) In short, there is telling evidence that the University, by the time it prepared the EIR, had either made decisions or formulated reasonably definite proposals as to future uses of the building. At a minimum, it is clear that the future expansion and the general types of future activity at the facility are reasonably foreseeable. To counter this evidence the Regents argue that only they can approve formal plans as to the building's future use and that statements by the Chancellor, Dean, and other officials are insignificant. We need not delve into the University's complex internal procedures to determine who has the power to decide precise uses of the building. The point is that there is credible and substantial evidence that UCSF's plans are reasonably foreseeable. It is the substance of the evidence, not the source alone, that matters. We also find the future action will be significant in that it will likely change the scope or nature of the proposed initial project and its environmental effects. The Regents do not contend otherwise, and could not reasonably do so. The anticipated eventual use of the entire Laurel Heights facility would include an increase in the amount of space used from approximately 100,000 square feet to 354,000 square feet and an increase in occupants from approximately 460 to 860. This is obviously a change in the scope of the project and perhaps its nature as well. We believe the Regents can provide meaningful, reliable data in the EIR as to future activity at Laurel Heights and thus must do so. A factually similar situation was present in Whitman v. Board of Supervisors (1979) 88 Cal. App.3d 397 [151 Cal. Rptr. 866]. An oil company's application for a conditional use permit was granted despite the EIR's failure to discuss the environmental effects of a contemplated pipeline. The court found the EIR to be inadequate and explained that The record before us reflects that the construction of the pipeline was, from the very beginning, within the contemplation of [the project proponent] should its well prove productive. Although admittedly contingent on the happening of certain occurrences, the pipeline was, nevertheless part of [the] overall plan for the project and could have been discussed in the EIR in at least general terms.  ( Id., at pp. 414-415 [italics added]; No Oil, Inc. v. City of Los Angeles (1987) 196 Cal. App.3d 223, 233 [242 Cal. Rptr. 37] [requiring general EIR discussion of contemplated pipeline].) The same principle applies here. UCSF should have discussed in the EIR at least the general effects of the reasonably foreseeable future uses of the Laurel Heights facility, the environmental effects of those uses, and the currently anticipated measures for mitigating those effects. We do not require prophecy. The Regents are not required by our decision to commit themselves to a particular use or to predict precisely what the environmental effects, if any, of future activity will be. Nor do we require discussion in the EIR of specific future action that is merely contemplated or a gleam in a planner's eye. To do so would be inconsistent with the rule that mere feasibility and planning studies do not require an EIR. (Guidelines, § 15262.) A detailed environmental analysis of every precise use that may conceivably occur is not necessary at this stage. ( No Oil, Inc. v. City of Los Angeles, supra, 196 Cal. App.3d at pp. 235, 237-238.) The fact that precision may not be possible, however, does not mean that no analysis is required. Drafting an EIR ... involves some degree of forecasting. While foreseeing the unforeseeable is not possible, an agency must use its best efforts to find out and disclose all that it reasonably can. (Guidelines, § 15144.) With the vast intellectual resources at its disposal, the University can surely make informed judgments as to probable future activities at the Laurel Heights facility. [8] An implicit premise of the Regents' position is that their task will be more difficult if they must consider the environmental effects of less-than-definite future plans. This premise is flawed. We find no authority that exempts an agency from complying with the law, environmental or otherwise, merely because the agency's task may be difficult. If CEQA is unduly burdensome, the solution lies with the Legislature, not with this court. We hold that the EIR was inadequate because it fails to discuss the anticipated future uses of the Laurel Heights facility and the environmental effects of those uses. We cannot and do not by this opinion prescribe the exact information that the University must include in its EIR. We expect the University will attempt in good faith to fulfill its obligation under CEQA to provide sufficient meaningful information regarding the types of activity and environmental effects that are reasonably foreseeable when the remainder of the Laurel Heights facility is used by UCSF.