City sues Palomar College over Rancho Bernardo site

The City of San Diego is suing Palomar College to prevent it from proceeding with its new Rancho Bernardo campus without completing another environmental impact report.

A petition for writ of mandate and complaint for injunctive relief was filed in Superior Court on July 15 after the San Diego City Council decided to try to stop the project until another EIR is completed that adequately addresses concerns related to traffic, parking and greenhouse emissions.

“This project was developed without any respect for the community’s concerns,” said City Councilman Mark Kersey, whose district includes Rancho Bernardo. “Because none of the city’s responses to the EIR were taken into consideration, I asked my colleagues to support taking legal action to address the impacts of the project before it moves forward.”

“We’re aware the city filed the complaint ... (but) Palomar College’s policy is to not respond to pending or current litigation,” said Laura Gropen, Palomar College’s director of communications, marketing and public affairs.

It is not yet known when a judge will review the petition. City officials “anticipate it will be within a matter of months,” said Gerry Braun, communications director in the city attorney’s office.

“Our intent is to prevent (progress on the project) until a judge issues an injunction or Palomar agrees not to proceed,” Braun said, adding, “We hope to get it in front of a judge as soon as possible.”

On June 14, Palomar’s board of trustees certified the final environmental impact report for the South Education Center project, slated for a 27-acre parcel at 11111 Rancho Bernardo Road, despite objections from city officials and the community.

At issue is Palomar’s compliance with the California Environmental Quality Act.

In the petition, the city claims:

• Traffic generated by the project will have a significant effect on the environment, including an increase in delays at the Rancho Bernardo Road/Via del Campo, Rancho Bernardo Road/Matinal Road and Rancho Bernardo Road/West Bernardo Drive intersections in amounts that exceed the applicable significance threshold identified in the final environmental impact report (FEIR). “These impacts have not been adequately disclosed and analyzed in the FEIR,” according to the petition.

• Palomar has failed to adequately propose mitigation measures that would mitigate the project’s significant traffic and other impacts by reducing or avoiding them. The petition alleges the FEIR incorrectly analyzed project impact to Rancho Bernardo Road by basing the report on the assumption that it is a six-lane prime arterial when it is actually a six-lane major road with a capacity of 50,000 average daily trips.

It also includes traffic mitigation improvements that are not as effective as other neighborhood traffic calming features that could address traffic impacts in adjacent neighborhoods, city officials said. Nor does the FEIR propose and analyze measures to reduce or lessen traffic impacts, such as ways to increase alternative modes of transportation.

• The project does not have a plan to limit student and staff parking off-site, and the additional traffic in adjacent neighborhoods would result in land use, noise, air quality and traffic effects not adequately disclosed or analyzed.

• It would result in “potentially significant impacts” related to greenhouse gas emissions that were also not adequately disclosed or analyzed.

The petition alleges “The FEIR ... fails to disclose and address the significant environmental effects in a good faith manner. Thus, the FEIR fails as a tool for environmental protection and informed government decision-making.”

It also states, “By failing to adequately address and analyze significant environmental effects and failing to adequately address feasible mitigation measures for the Project, (Palomar’s) approval ... violated both the spirit and letter of CEQA.”

According to the petition, during the EIR process, Palomar’s “responses to public comments submitted were inadequate ... (it) failed to adequately address (the city’s) concerns ... (and) dismissed many of (the city’s) comments without adequate analysis or explanation.” In addition, Palomar “certified with FEIR without having resolved the numerous deficiencies raised by the City or the other commenting parties.”

Palomar College purchased its Rancho Bernardo site in 2010 for $38.3 million. It has a four-story 110,000-square-foot office building, a 574-space parking garage and a 218-space surface parking lot. It is zoned for two more 110,000-square-foot buildings, but officials have said they do not plan to construct them at this time. Plans include adding a 1,200-foot long interior looped road around the property.

Officials have reduced the number of full time equivalent students to 2,000 and the campus is designed to serve the district’s southern communities, including Rancho Bernardo, Rancho Penasquitos and Poway.

The campus was set to open for fall 2017, but after needing to recirculate its draft EIR earlier this year, that process pushed back the opening to the spring 2018 semester, officials said. What impact the city’s lawsuit could have on that plan is not yet known.