(January 21)  Yet another lawsuit brought by attorney Cory Briggs against the city of Chino and one of the project proponents to which it had given an entitlement to build has been settled on terms Briggs hailed as a victory.
Briggs, representing the Inland Oversight Committee and Citizens for Responsible Equitable Environmental Development, named Chino and Majestic Realty Company as defendants in a lawsuit which cited environmental concerns at the  Chino Gateway Project Majestic intends to develop on unused grounds owned by the state and recorded on maps as within the footprint of the  California Institution for Men. Majestic is leasing the land, totaling 156 acres, from the state and will erect two separate 1.44 million square foot warehouses, a smaller 180,000 square foot warehouse and 46,600 square feet of retail and commercial space.
One of the issues raised in the suit was the manner in which the project had been approved by the city, bypassing a full-blown environmental impact report and substituting what amounted to a negative declaration of unmitigateable environmental impacts by the city council, which consented to amending its general plan environmental impact report where it was out of synchronicity with the project.
Under an arrangement worked out by Briggs and lawyers for Majestic, Majestic has agreed to adjusting the traffic circulation element of the development to reduce nearby impacts. In addition, Majestic is to install, at its own cost, photovoltaic generating equipment at and on the warehouses rated to generate 1.6 million kilowatt hours of power per year, enough to provide 110 percent of the power requirements for operation of the warehouses and the adjoining retail project. Majestic consented to picking up $18,920 of the legal costs the Inland Oversight Committee and Citizens for Responsible Equitable Environmental Development had accrued with Briggs. Briggs agreed to terminate the suit against all parties, including the city.
Briggs has emerged victorious from two previous suits that named the city of Chino and currently has four further cases pending against it.