San Diego Developer Transportation Rule Scorned by Appeals Court

San Diego County failed to properly show why certain developers should be exempt from studying transportation-related environmental effects to comply with state law, a California appeals court ruled.

The justices revived a challenge by environmental groups over the county’s 2022 thresholds that would allow developers to skip certain studies required under the state’s Environmental Quality Act to obtain permits.

“A significance threshold adopted for general use must be supported by substantial evidence,” Justice William Dato wrote in an opinion published Thursday in the California Court of Appeal, Fourth District.

The county used unproven “assumptions,” the opinion said, to justify exempting ...