By: EDCARP
PLACERVILLE, CALIFORNIA – On Monday, April 19, 2021, the Third District Court of Appeal in Sacramento issued a decision upholding the 2017 trial court ruling invalidating key provisions of Measure E. The court of appeal agreed that the challenged provisions of the initiative measure are unconstitutional and violate state law or the county’s general plan.
The decision stems from a petition for writ of mandate filed by Alliance for Responsible Planning (EDCARP) shortly after the June 2016 passage of Measure E. The initiative sought to amend general plan policies to eliminate mitigation of project traffic impacts by payment of a fair share of the cost of improvements through traffic impact fees. Instead, Measure E required an applicant for a discretionary permit to construct road or highway improvements far in excess of the project’s impacts or simply wait on the sidelines indefinitely until those improvements were built by someone else.
Save our County and Sue Taylor, an author and proponent of Measure E, intervened in the Alliance lawsuit in 2016 to defend the initiative. After El Dorado County Superior Court Judge Warren Stracener issued his ruling in August 2017 invalidating key provisions of Measure E as an unconstitutional taking of property, violations of state law, or inconsistent with the county general plan, Sue Taylor filed this appeal.
Alliance/EDCARP argued on appeal that the trial court’s ruling was correct and should be upheld. The Court of Appeal agreed, rejecting all of the arguments advanced by Sue Taylor and ordering Taylor to pay Alliance’s costs on appeal.
A copy of the Opinion by the Third District Court of Appeal is available at the link below: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1dRHy-XYI4swaXusJLh1sO2nsoeSc3LiG/view?usp=sharing