Dear Editor,
In light of your article (‘Another Hurdle for Hillel’) on the California Court of Appeal’s decision regarding Hillel of San Diego’s Jewish Student Center project, Taxpayers for Responsible Land Use would like to provide the following comments:
The City of San Diego’s Planning Commission has twice recommended denial of the project based on inappropriate location and inadequate parking.
The California Court of Appeal considered Hillel of San Diego’s appeal of a San Diego Superior Court ruling that invalidated the project’s 2006 Mitigated Negative Declaration. A principal issue before the Court of Appeal was whether, under the California Environmental Quality Act, the proposed project requires a full Environmental Impact Report or can be accommodated by a more cursory MND. TRLU believes that an EIR was required and the Court of Appeal concurred.
And TRLU expects that an EIR will demonstrate the unsuitability of the proposed location. Although the Court of Appeal did not reverse the sale of the land by the city to Hillel of San Diego, it did agree with TRLU that the City of San Diego wasted taxpayers’ money by selling the site to Hillel of San Diego at a price that was substantially below market value and that the Superior Court’s judgment on this matter was erroneous and must be reversed.