LB Unified School District Files Legal Action Alleging Flawed Airport EIR...BUT Will Ask Court To Stay Proceedings Until Oct. 24 While LBUSD Engages In Negotiations/Discussions With City Officials In Effort To Resolve Issues

Action Is Meant To Preserve LBUSD's Legal Options, School District Says

[T]he Airport [under the proposed project] will nearly double in size from 56,320 square feet to 102,850 square feet. The project threatens significant and far-reaching environmental impacts, including, among others, air quality and noise impacts.

...The School District submitted comments [to the draft EIR regarding facilities improvements]...that will accommodate increased numbers of airline flights...The School District suggested specific, feasible mitigation measures to address the Project's noise impacts. Finally, the School District invited the City's staff to work collaboratively with it to address health and safety impacts raised by the Project.

...On May 4, 2006, after discovering that the City's responses to comments on the Draft EIR failed to address the School District's concerns, the School District submitted another comment letter...

On May 11, 2006, a representative of the School District appeared before the Planning Commission...In response to the School District's stated concerns, one Planning Commissioner said, "Hey, I'm a CEQA lawyer, and that's real gobbledygook, ma'am. Let's cut out, you know, all the rigamarole."

...On June 20, 2006, the City Council denied the appeals [49 total appellants] and sustained the Planning Commission's certification of the EIR, adoption of a statement of overriding considerations, mitigation and monitoring plan, and, with minor revisions, approval of the project...

[Complaint states several grounds for EIR allegedly violating CEQA and inconsistency with City's General Plan, see filing.]

The school district is filing legal action now to preserve its options...Although we appreciate the city's gesture of extending the deadline to file legal action, we have some reservations about whether the city has the legal authority to do so. The question is whether the extension ultimately would hold up in court, and we don't want to take any chances.

Our school district is still very much interested in seeking an agreement outside of court and will continue to pursue that avenue. To that end we are asking the court to issue a stay on the district's legal action to allow the city and the district time to negotiate a solution, and the city is cooperating in that effort. We remain hopeful that we can work out any differences among ourselves. Further legal action would be a last resort.

The school district has no position regarding the airport modernization project as a whole. Our interest is much narrower. We want an opportunity to work with the city to examine and address the issue of noise and how it impacts our schools and students. Historically, the school district has not had an opportunity to address this issue.

Our latest action is not an attempt to block the project but to make certain that noise issues are addressed should the project move forward.