The deadline to challenge the Caltrans environmental report for the Highway 101 widening project came and went, but the City of Santa Barbara apparently hasn’t filed anything in court.
Caltrans released the final environmental impact report for the southern Santa Barbara County highway-widening project on Aug. 28, which started a 30-day window to file a challenge under the California Environmental Quality Act.
The Santa Barbara City Council voted to pursue litigation over the EIR at a Sept. 16 closed session meeting, but had another closed session meeting the week after regarding anticipated litigation.
Details of that meeting are not being disclosed, and interim City Administrator Paul Casey would not confirm that the city has dropped the issue.
He did say that under CEQA, any legal challenge to the Caltrans EIR should have been submitted by Monday.
However, there was a challenge filed by environmental law attorney Marc Chytilo on behalf of a group that formed in response to this specific project.
It’s called the Committees for Land, Air, Water and Species, and its Transportation Futures Committee specifically is involved in this lawsuit.
Both groups formed after the project was approved, but individual members — who are not named in the petition — objected to the project and submitted comments to the EIR, which gives the group standing to file a lawsuit now, Chytilo said.
“Caltrans has not yet seen the lawsuit but stands behind its recently completed final environmental impact report on the U.S. 101 South Coast HOV Lanes Project,” said Caltrans’ Jim Shivers, public information officer for District 5.
Other than hearing about this lawsuit, Caltrans hadn’t received notice from the court of any CEQA challenge filed by Tuesday night.
“We believe this project will improve the lives of thousands of people who both live in Santa Barbara County and travel this major highway corridor every day,” Shivers said in a statement.
The group represented by Chytilo is made up of Santa Barbara residents and “has no affiliation with any groups that have previously been involved in the 101 widening project,” Chytilo said in an email.
The committee filed the action “to keep open the door to question Caltrans’ environmental assessment of the 101 widening project.”
The petition against Caltrans and SBCAG claims the EIR is “deeply flawed,” and Caltrans didn’t recognize significant negative impacts of the project, particularly with more congestion on local intersections, or provide adequate mitigation measures.
“Here, Caltrans acknowledged in a backhand way that the Project will actually increase congestion at many locations on the South Coast, blight coastal views and cause serious cumulative impacts, yet does little or nothing to mitigate these impacts,” Chytilo said in a statement.
The petition asks the Santa Barbara County Superior Court to set aside the EIR and for Caltrans to comply with CEQA.
Concerns in the petition mirror the ones expressed by the City of Santa Barbara during discussions of the project.
Santa Barbara officials have long pushed for some municipal interchanges to be improved alongside the widening project, arguing that the freeway improvements will lead to more congestion on city streets.
When the SBCAG board approved moving forward with the widening project, it also voted to pursue the city-jurisdiction projects separately.
The assumption is that the city would have to come up with funding for the desired projects, including the replacement of the Union Pacific Railroad bridge over Cabrillo Boulevard and interchange improvements at Olive Mill Road.
The Santa Barbara City Council voted 5-1-1 to initiate litigation on Sept. 16, with Mayor Helene Schneider and Councilmen Dale Francisco, Frank Hotchkiss, Randy Rowse and Bendy White voting in favor of litigation, and Councilwoman Cathy Murillo voting against it.
Councilman Gregg Hart abstained from the vote, according to City Attorney Ariel Calonne. Hart works as a government affairs and public information coordinator for the Santa Barbara County Association of Governments, the agency that approved moving forward with the widening project in January.
— Noozhawk news editor Giana Magnoli can be reached at gmagnoli@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.
