HomeMy WebLinkAboutPRR22185 Tsai - VillagioPh: (626) 381-9248
Fx: (626) 389-5414
Em: info@mitchtsailaw.com
Mitchell M. Tsai
Attorney At Law
155 South El Molino Avenue
Suite 104
Pasadena, California 91101
VIA E-Mail
July 14, 2022
Teresa Purrington, City Clerk
City of San Luis Obispo
990 Palm Street
San Luis Obispo, CA 93401
Em: tpurrington@slocity.org
RE: Public Records Act and Mailing List Request Regarding The
Villaggio Life Plan Community Project
Dear Teresa Purrington,
On behalf of Southwest Regional Council of Carpenters (“SWRCC”) and its
members, this Office requests that the City of San Luis Obispo (City”) provide any
and all information referring or related to Villaggio Life Plan Community Project
(“Project”) pursuant to the California Public Records Act (“PRA”), Cal. Government
(“Gov’t”) Code §§ 6250–6270 (collectively “PRA Request”).
Moreover, the SWRCC requests that City provide notice for any and all notices
referring or related to the Project issued under the California Environmental Quality
Act (“CEQA”), Cal Public Resources Code (“PRC”) § 21000 et seq, and the California
Planning and Zoning Law (“Planning and Zoning Law”), Cal. Gov’t Code §§
65000–65010. California Public Resources Code Sections 21092.2, and 21167(f) and
Government Code Section 65092 require agencies to mail such notices to any person
who has filed a written request for them with the clerk of the agency’s governing body.
The Southwest Regional Council of Carpenters is a labor union representing 50,000
union carpenters in six states, including in southern California, and has a strong
interest in well-ordered land use planning and addressing the environmental impacts of
development projects, such as the Project.
I. PUBLIC RECORDS ACT REQUEST.
SWRCC is requesting any and all information referring or related to the Project.
The Public Records Act defines the term “public record” broadly as “any writing
containing information relating to the conduct of the public’s business . . . regardless
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July 14, 2022
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of physical form and characteristics.” Gov’t Code § 6252(d). “Records” includes all
communications relating to public business regardless of physical form or
characteristics, including but not limited to any writing, picture, sound, or symbol,
whether paper, magnetic, electronic, text, other media, or written verification of any
oral communication. Included in this request are any references in any appointment
calendars and applications, phone records, or text records. These “records” are to
include, but are not limited to correspondences, e-mails, reports, letters,
memorandums, and communications by any employee or elected official of City
concerning the Project.
Please include in your response to this request the following examples of “records,” as
well as any similar physical or electronic forms of communication: any form of writing
such as correspondence, electronic mail records (“email”), legal and factual
memoranda, facsimiles, photographs, maps, videotapes, film, data, reports, notes,
audiotapes, or drawings. Cal. Government Code § 6252(g) (defining a writing to
including “any record thereby created, regardless of the manner in which the record
has been stored”). Responsive correspondence should include, inter alia, emails, text
messages, or any other form of communication regardless of whether they were sent
or received on public or privately-owned electronic devices “relating to the conduct of
the public’s business.” Cal. Government Code § 6252(e); Citizens for Ceres v. Super. Ct.
(“Ceres”) (2013) 217 Cal. App. 4th 889, 909; Citizens for Open Gov’t v. City of Lodi
(“Lodi”) (2012) 205 Cal.App.4th 296, 307, 311; City of San Jose v. Superior Court (2017) 2
Cal. 5th 608, 625 (finding that a public employee or officer’s “writings about public
business are not excluded” from the California Public Records Act “simply because
they have been sent, received, or stored in a personal account.”) .
This Office requests any and all information referring or related to the Project,
including but not limited to:
(1) All Project application materials;
(2) All staff reports and related documents prepared by the City with respect
to its compliance with the substantive and procedural requirements of
the California Environmental Quality Act, Public Resources Code §
21000 et seq., and the CEQA Guidelines, title 14, California Code of
Regulations, § 15000 et seq. (collectively “CEQA”) and with respect to
the action on the Project;
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July 14, 2022
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(3) All staff reports and related documents prepared by the City and written
testimony or documents submitted by any person relevant to any
findings or statement of overriding considerations adopted by the agency
pursuant to CEQA;
(4) Any transcript or minutes of the proceedings at which the
decisionmaking body of the City heard testimony on, or considered any
environmental document on, the Project, and any transcript or minutes
of proceedings before any advisory body to the public agency that were
presented to the decisionmaking body prior to action on the
environmental documents or on the Project;
(5) All notices issued by the City to comply with CEQA or with any other
law governing the processing and approval of the Project;
(6) All written comments received in response to, or in connection with,
environmental documents prepared for the Project, including responses
to the notice of preparation;
(7) All written evidence or correspondence submitted to, or transferred
from, the City with respect to compliance with CEQA or with respect to
the Project;
(8) Any proposed decisions or findings submitted to the decisionmaking
body of the City by its staff, or the Project proponent, Project
opponents, or other persons;
(9) The documentation of the final City decision and approvals, including
the final environmental impact report, mitigated negative declaration,
negative declaration, or notice of exemption, and all documents, in
addition to those referenced in paragraph (3), cited or relied on in the
findings or in a statement of overriding considerations adopted pursuant
to CEQA;
(10) Any other written materials relevant to the public agency's compliance
with CEQA or to its decision on the merits of the Project, including the
initial study, any drafts of any environmental document, or portions
thereof, that have been released for public review, and copies of studies
or other documents relied upon in any environmental document
prepared for the Project and either made available to the public during
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July 14, 2022
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the public review period or included in the City 's files on the Project,
and all internal agency communications, including staff notes and
memoranda related to the Project or to compliance with CEQA; and
(11) The full written record before any inferior administrative decisionmaking
body whose decision was appealed to a superior administrative
decisionmaking body prior to the filing of any litigation.
Please respond within 10 business days from the date you receive this request as to
whether this request specifies identifiable records not exempt from disclosure under
the PRA or otherwise privileged or confidential, and are therefore subject to
disclosure. This Office understands that this time may be extended up to 14 days for
unusual circumstances as provided by Cal. Government Code § 6253(c), and that we
will be notified of any extension and the reasons justifying it.
We request that you provide all documents in electronic format and waive any and all
fees associated with this Request. SWRCC is a community-based organization. Please
notify and obtain express approval from this Office before incurring any duplication
costs.
If any of the above requested documents are available online, please provide us with
the URL web address at which the documents may be downloaded. If any of the
requested documents are retained by the City in electronic computer-readable format
such as PDF (portable document format), please provide us with pdf copies of the
documents via email, or inform us of the location at which we can copy these
documents electronically.
In preparing your response, please bear in mind that you have an obligation under
Government Code section 6253.1 to (1) identify all records and information
responsive to our request or the purpose of our request; (2) describe the information
technology and physical location in which the records exist; and (3) provide
suggestions for overcoming any practical basis for denying access to the records or
information sought.
In responding to this request, please bear in mind that any exemptions from disclosure
you may believe to be applicable are to be narrowly construed. Marken v. Santa Monica-
Malibu Unif. Sch. Dist. (2012) 202 Cal. App. 4th 1250,1262; and may be further
narrowed or eliminated by the adoption of Proposition 59, which amended article I,
section 3(b)(2) of the California Constitution to direct that any “statute ... or other
City of San Luis Obispo – Villaggio Life Plan Community Project
July 14, 2022
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authority ... [that] limits the right of access” to “information concerning the conduct of
the people’s business” must be “narrowly construed.”
As for any records that you nonetheless decline to produce on the grounds of an
exemption, please bear in mind that the case law under the Public Records Act
imposes a duty on you to distinguish between the exempt and the non-exempt portion
of any such records, and to attempt in good faith to redact the exempt portion and to
disclose the balance of such documents.
Please bear in mind further that should you choose to withhold any document from
disclosure, you have a duty under Government Code section 6255, subd. (a) to “justify
withholding any record by demonstrating that the record in question is exempt under
express provisions” of the Public Records Act or that “the public interest served by
not disclosing the record clearly outweighs the public interest served by disclosure of
the record.”
Finally, please note that you must retain and not destroy any and all records,
notwithstanding any local record retention or document destruction policies. As the
Court noted in Golden Door Properties, LLC v. Superior Court of San Diego County (2020) 53
Cal.App.5th 733 that a public agency “must retain ‘[a]ll written evidence or
correspondence submitted to, or transferred from’ . . . with respect to” CEQA
compliance or “with respect to the project.”
II. NOTICE LIST REQUEST.
We also ask that you put this Office on its notice list for any and all notices issued
under the CEQA and the Planning and Zoning Law.
In particular, we request that City send by mail or electronic mail notice of any and all
actions or hearings related to activities undertaken, authorized, approved, permitted,
licensed, or certified by the City and any of its subdivision for the Project, or
supported, in whole or in part, through permits, contracts, grants, subsidies, loans, or
other forms of approvals, actions or assistance, including but not limited to the
following:
• Notices of any public hearing held in connection with the Project;
as well as
• Any and all notices prepared pursuant to CEQA, including but not
limited to:
City of San Luis Obispo – Villaggio Life Plan Community Project
July 14, 2022
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• Notices of determination that an Environmental Impact Report
(“EIR”) or supplemental EIR is required for a project, prepared
pursuant to Public Resources Code Section 21080.4;
• Notices of availability of an EIR or a negative declaration for a
project prepared pursuant to Public Resources Code Section 21152
and Section 15087 of Title 14 of the California Code of Regulations;
• Notices of approval or determination to carry out a project,
prepared pursuant to Public Resources Code Section 21152 or any
other provision of law;
• Notice of approval or certification of any EIR or negative
declaration prepared pursuant to Public Resources Code Section
21152 or any other provision of law;
• Notice of exemption from CEQA prepared pursuant to Public
Resources Code section 21152 or any other provision of law; and
• Notice of any Final EIR prepared pursuant to CEQA.
This Office is requesting notices of any approvals or public hearings under CEQA and
the California Planning and Zoning Law. This request is filed pursuant to California
Public Resources Code Sections 21092.2, and 21167(f) and Government Code Section
65092 requiring agencies to mail such notices to any person who has filed a written
request for them with the clerk of the agency’s governing body.
Please send notice by regular and electronic mail to:
Mitchell M. Tsai, Attorney At Law
139 South Hudson Avenue
Suite 200
Pasadena, California 91101
Em: mitch@mitchtsailaw.com
Em: brandon@mitchtsailaw.com
Em: hind@mitchtsailaw.com
Em: info@mitchtsailaw.com
Em: rebekah@mitchtsailaw.com
Em: maria@mitchtsailaw.com
City of San Luis Obispo – Villaggio Life Plan Community Project
July 14, 2022
Page 7 of 7
Em: steven@mitchtsailaw.com
Em: malou@mitchtsailaw.com
We look forward to working with you. If you have any questions or concerns, please
do not hesitate to contact our Office.
Sincerely,
_______________________________
Mitchell M. Tsai
Attorneys for Southwest Regional Council
of Carpenters