Town of Atherton v. Cal. High-Speed Rail Auth.
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In 1996 when the Legislature established defendant California High-Speed Rail Authority, it declared the need for an intercity rail system operating at high speeds to complement the existing infrastructure of highways and airports. At the heart of the dispute in this case is the Authority's decision that trains travelling between those destinations should travel through the Pacheco Pass rather than further north at the Altamont Pass. Petitioners challenged the adequacy of the revised final program environmental impact report/environmental impact statement (PEIR/EIS) and the approval of the Pacheco Pass network alternative as the route for the high-speed train (HST) system to connect the San Francisco Bay Area and the Central Valley. They contended the revised final PEIR violates the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) because it: (1) provided an inadequate where to elevate the track along the San Francisco Peninsula; (2) used a flawed revenue and ridership model; and (3) had an inadequate range of alternatives, specifically because it rejects an alternative proposed by an expert consulting company (Setec). The Authority moved to dismiss, arguing that federal law preempted any CEQA remedy. The Court of Appeal found no reversible error and affirmed.
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