The city of Livingston broke state law when it approved its 2025 General Plan Update and certified the requisite environmental documents, a Merced Superior Court judge has ruled.
The ruling, which decided a nearly year-old lawsuit against the city, ordered Livingston to send its controversial 2025 GPU -- which projects the city to grow to roughly 100,000 -- back to the drawing board.
The suit was filed by the Merced Farm Bureau in December 2008. It claims the city's environmental impact report was inadequate and that the city violated state planning laws, among other charges.
According to court documents, presiding Judge Carol Ash concluded that the "city's approval of the GPU and certification of the EIR violated CEQA (California Environmental Quality Act) and the Open Space Plans Act."
The ruling goes on to say the city must set aside its approval and certification of the GPU, as well as its EIR.
The city, which has yet to receive the ruling, said City Manager Richard Warne contends in the suit that it didn't break any such laws. In the filings, Livingston's lawyers argue the city exceeded the requirements of the EIR.
According to the suit, the city "claims there was no abuse of discretion and the city reached an informed decision in certifying the EIR, and their adoption of the GPU was not arbitrary, capricious or entirely lacking in evidentiary support."
Peter Koch, the Merced Farm Bureau's president, said he couldn't comment on the court's ruling since he hadn't received it yet.
The case specifically alleged the city failed to proceed in the proper manner by adopting an arbitrary GPU that didn't take into account public concerns over the plan. According to the case, the plan also failed to protect permanent open space, biological resources and agricultural land.
In addition, the suit alleged the city failed to live up to the CEQA. The case states that the EIR inadequately analyzed the plan's agricultural impacts, as well as its potential impacts on air quality and water resources, among other supposed defects.
The GPU is a document that sets the city's general policy toward land use and growth, including the annexation of farmland.
Reporter Jonah Owen Lamb can be reached at (209) 385-2484 or jlamb@mercedsun-star.com.
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