California: moving playground equipment does not require formal environmental review
Liam Dillon on Twitter:
A California state appellate court has determined that moving playground equipment — a small zip line to be specific — from one spot to another does NOT require formal environmental review under the California Environmental Quality Act
Arthur F. Coon at the law firm Miller Starr Regalia has a detailed explanation. This was in the city of Davis.
On August 30, 2022, City’s Council approved the Sky Track’s relocation to location B and filed a notice of exemption finding the project exempt under the CEQA Guidelines’ categorical exemptions for Class 3 (new construction, installation, or conversion of limited number of small structures, facilities, equipment), Class 4 (minor alterations to land, water, vegetation), and Class 11 (construction or placement of accessory structures). (CEQA Guidelines, §§ 15303, 15304, 15311.)
Petitioners Joe and Janet Krovoza filed a writ petition challenging the exemption, and the trial court denied the petition, finding the project fell within the claimed exemptions, that substantial evidence supported City’s finding that no unusual circumstances existed, and that petitioners failed to carry their burden to establish the unusual circumstances exception because substantial evidence showed Sky Track’s operating noise levels at the new location would be reduced from those at the existing location.
The petitioners timely appealed and the Court of Appeal affirmed.
The decision was published in December 2025.
Previously: