California Environmental Protection

A North Tustin senior housing project got derailed. Affordable housing for low-income residents in Orange was waylaid for several months. A water pipeline for south Orange County has been held up for four years.

And a Santa Ana homeless shelter ended up going elsewhere.

All four projects – serving the elderly, the poor, the homeless and the thirsty – ended up in court facing accusations they were potential environmental threats.

The would-be environmentalists in these cases included neighboring businesses, neighborhood associations and a mining company serving the oil and gas industry.

They are just some examples of how so-called “NIMBYs” and businesses use the California Environmental Quality Act, or CEQA, as a pretext to block housing and other types of needed development, the co-author of a recent study maintains.

“Because this keeps getting fought in the name of the environment, all bets are off, ” said San Francisco attorney Jennifer Hernandez, who has reviewed hundreds of environmental suits filed in the past six years as part of the study. “Never mind about common decency.”

Not true, say CEQA’s defenders, which include environmentalists and civic and public health groups.

Because of CEQA, California’s air is cleaner, there’s less congestion, living here is more desirable and places like Newport Harbor are sewage-free.

In a competing study, a pro-environmental group pushed back at the notion that CEQA is impeding growth and driving up home prices.

“There have been a lot of assertions. There has not been a lot of robust, quantitative research to back that up, ” said Jessica Hitchcock, vice president of BAE Urban Economics, which conducted the rival litigation study released this month.

“We found that the litigation is quite low. It’s fewer than one in 100 projects in which lawsuits were filed, ” Hitchcock said. “I would say CEQA is not the reason why the cost of housing is so high in California.”

Californians have been skirmishing over CEQA reform for over a decade.

The state’s signature environmental law was back in the limelight this year after Gov. Jerry Brown sought to spur affordable-home construction by allowing certain projects to win approval “by right, ” bypassing local reviews.

The plan sparked protests around the state, with opponents maintaining it would bypass CEQA. Demonstrators appear to have won the day.

A spokesman for state Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon said that negotiations over Brown’s proposal are deadlocked.