Court Upholds San Francisco's CEQA Exemption For Telegraph Hill Project

Joanna L Meldrum is an Associate and Amanda J Monchamp is a Partner in our San Francisco office.

In Protect Telegraph Hill v. City and County of San Francisco (Sept. 14, 2017 Slip Opinion A148544, unpublished), the First District Court of Appeal upheld the City of San Francisco's determination that rehabilitation of a historic cottage and development of three residential units on Telegraph Hill was categorically exempt from review under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). The petitioning neighborhood group argued that the project's conditions of approval were mitigation measures, the project description was inadequate and the project was not exempt due to unusual circumstances. The court rejected all three arguments.