"No One Can Stop Change": Court Upholds Use Of Future Baseline Under CEQA

In the past two years, a handful of court decisions have been read to narrow local agency authority to use a "future baseline" approach to analyze impacts under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). Now, the Second District Court of Appeal has concluded that use of a future baseline, as long as it is supported by substantial evidence, is an appropriate way of analyzing traffic and air quality impacts for long-term infrastructure projects – a decision that the court acknowledges puts it in "fundamental disagreement" with the Fifth and Sixth Districts.

Neighbors for Smart Rail v. Exposition Metro Line Construction Authority¹ concerns the proposal to construct a 6.6-mile light rail line connecting Culver City with Santa Monica, following construction of an initial phase from downtown Los Angeles to Culver City. The "Expo Authority," charged with implementing the light rail project, determined that existing conditions (in 2009) did not provide a reasonable