Environmental Requirements Delay O.K. of Hillel Building On California Campus

At the University of California, San Diego, Hillel (the Foundation for Jewish Campus Life), has been attempting for 5 years to get approval to build a new Jewish student center near campus. As reported in yesterday's UCSD Guardian, a California appellate court has agreed with an environmental group that the proposed building may have substantial environmental effects so that an environmental impact statement relating to traffic and parking, biological resources and aesthetics and community character is required. In Taxpayers for Responsible Land Use v. City of San Diego, (CA Ct. App., Feb. 18, 2009), a California appellate court, while imposing the new environmental requirement, rejected claims of procedural defects in the city's sale of the land to the Hillel Foundation.