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Napa Junction phase 3 traffic study ‘flawed’

AMERICAN CANYON – A Napa County judge tossed out American Canyon’s approval of the 17-acre third and final phase of the Napa Junction mixed-use development, deciding that the city relied on traffic analysis from another phase of the project that had later been invalidated by an appeals court.

Now the city and developer Lake Street Ventures will have to decide whether to conduct a new traffic study or appeal Napa County Superior Court Judge Francisca Tisher’s June 2 mandate for the city to re-evaluate the City Council’s approval of the project. It is set to take effect around the end of this month. In her nine-page ruling, Judge Tisher rejected all but the traffic-impact contention brought by Union Pacific Railroad that the council hadn’t properly considered environmental impacts in its approval of the project in September 2006.

The railroad sued the city shortly after the approval, claiming that a more rigorous environmental review needed to be conducted on the project. The case was put on hold while the city, railroad and developer tried to resolve the issue.

The matter came close to resolution twice, but talks broke down over the railroad’s desire for a road easement from Highway 29 through the third phase to the railroad property, according to attorneys for the railroad and city. The railroad is interested in building retail space on the property or selling it for such use.

Judge Tisher wrote in her ruling that the traffic studies for phase 3, conducted in 2005 and updated in 2006, were based on studies done for completed phases 1 and 2, which contain 216 apartments, retail shops and a 184,000-square-foot Wal-Mart Supercenter store. “Because the city relied for that determination on a flawed traffic study, the court can only conclude that the decision regarding traffic is not supported by substantial evidence,” Judge Tisher wrote about the council’s decision on phase 3.

Ruling on a 2004 environmental-impact challenge against the Wal-Mart-anchored second phase of the project, the Court of Appeals in November 2006 determined that the traffic study for the second phase was inaccurate because it miscalculated the size of the retail space in the store.

After a new traffic study, re-approval of the project and a court settlement, the store opened last September.

Attorneys for the city and Lake Street Ventures argued before Judge Tisher on May 27 that traffic studies conducted after the appeals court ruling should be considered as validation of the City Council’s 2006 approval of phase 3. The judge disagreed.

“All aspects of the environmental review were adequate, so a way to remedy the issue is to incorporate the same traffic information with an update of one year’s time,” City Attorney Bill Ross said last week.

He didn’t discount the possibility of an appeal of the decision. “The city does not think that CEQA should be used as an economic competition statute with Union Pacific wanting to use the land for retail tenants or selling the property,” Mr. Ross said.

In her ruling, Judge Tisher rejected the city’s and developer’s argument that the railroad didn’t have legal standing to bring an environmental-impact lawsuit over the project, largely because the railroad had “direct beneficial environmental interest” in a project on land next door.

“In relation to other CEQA cases addressing the standing issue, this present case appears unique in that the record establishes that [the] petitioner’s only subjective concern is its economic interests,” she wrote.

The third phase of Napa Junction is envisioned to have 131,000 square feet of shop and larger-store space. There were some discussions with several “mid-box” size retailers for phase 3 space before the judge’s ruling, according to Lake Street Ventures partner “Buzz” Butler. However, the economy may be as much to blame for slackened demand for the new space as legal issues, he said.

Yet, there has been strong demand for the rest of the space in the development, particularly once the Wal-Mart store opened to draw in shoppers from the surrounding area.

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