exception to the rule an agency must prepare an EIR before acquiring the land for a project. (Saltonstall v. City of Sacramento (2015) 234 Cal.App.4th 549, 570 [“CEQA provides an exception to the prohibition on commitment to a project before environmental review for purposes of land acquisition”].) In Stand Tall on Principles v. Shasta Union High Sch. Dist. (1991) 235 Cal.App.3d 772 (Stand Tall), a school district passed a resolution selecting a specific site for the construction of a new high school and a resolution directing its administration to make a formal purchase offer contingent on “completion of the EIR process.” (Id. at p. 777.) The appellate court concluded the resolutions did not trigger the duty to prepare an EIR. The new school site selection was “expressly made contingent on CEQA compliance” and therefore did not “commit the District to a definite course of action” because the district would be required to “thoroughly assess all reasonable alternative sites in its EIR.” (Id. at p. 781.) In Save Tara, the California Supreme Court approved the CEQA Guidelines’ “exception for land purchases” contingent on CEQA compliance as a “reasonable interpretation of [the statute].” (Save Tara, supra, 45 Cal.4th at p. 134.) The court also approved of the Stand Tall court’s application of the exception because the facts of that case showed the school district had not committed itself to a “definite course of action.” (Save Tara, at pp. 132-133.) Our high court cautioned, however, that the acquisition exception was not a “broad rule” allowing EIR preparation to be postponed “in all circumstances by use of a CEQA compliance condition.” (Id. at p. 133.) For example, an
§ 15378, subd. (a)(1).); see also Stand Tall, supra, 235 Cal.App.3d at pp. 781-782 [concluding the school district’s contingent campus site selection was not a project because it was nothing like the project examples in the CEQA Guidelines].) Friends of the Sierra Railroad v. Tuolumne Park & Recreation Dist. (2007) 147 Cal.App.4th 643 (Sierra Railroad) is instructive. In that case, an organization filed a CEQA action to void a park district’s transfer of a right-of-way to an Indian tribe, arguing the transfer was a “project” under CEQA and therefore the district was required to prepare an EIR before finalizing the transfer. (Sierra Railroad, at p. 647.) The appellate court concluded the transfer was not a project because “although some development of the property surrounding the historical resource was reasonably foreseeable, review of conceivable impacts on the historical resource itself would have been premature in the absence of any concrete development proposals.” (Ibid., italics added.) The acknowledged there were many indications in the administrative record that the tribe intended to do something with the acquired right-of-way. The tribe owned the land surrounding the right-of-way and was in the process of building on it a hotel, commercial development, and residential homes. (Sierra Railroad, supra, 147 Cal.App.4th at p. 649.) The tribe had even told the county planning commission in a letter that it “propose[d]” to use the right-of-way “for public hiking trails.” (Ibid.) However, the court concluded the sheer “likelihood of some development” resulting from a land transfer “does not trigger CEQA review.” (Id. at p. 657.) The court acknowledged “[t]here is no reason why CEQA review cannot be triggered by a transfer of ownership