In Committee for Sound Water & Land Development v. City of Seaside (2022) 79 Cal.App.5th 389, the Sixth District Court of Appeal upheld the trial court’s finding that a CEQA challenge to a proposal to develop a large “Mixed-Use Urban Village” on the former Fort Ord military base (Project) was time-barred. The Court also found that an alleged violation of due process to have been mooted by changes in the law governing land use on the former military base.
In 2017, KB Bakewell (KB) proposed to redevelop a site within the former Fort Ord military base, and, in March of 2020, the City of Seaside (City) prepared and certified an EIR, and approved the Project, including a specific plan. On March 6, 2020, the City issued a Notice of Determination, beginning a 30-day statute of limitations. On April 6, 2020, the Committee for Sound Water & Land Development (Petitioners) filed suit, raising causes of action under CEQA. Petitioners subsequently dismissed their suit without prejudice, but filed a second suit on September 1, 2020, raising the same claims and adding the Fort Ord Reuse Authority (FORA), the agency charged with determining the consistency of development projects within the Fort Ord Reuse Plan at the time...
