Board approves environmental review of Heights school rebuild delmartimes.net - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from delmartimes.net Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
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The Del Mar Heights School rebuild is on hold as the Del Mar Union School District completes additional environmental reviews, stemming from a court decision in the lawsuit against the district by Save the Field.
The district had planned to break ground on the project last summer and for students to be in their new school in August 2021, however, Heights students will continue to attend school off-site in the 2021-22 school year at Ocean Air School and Del Mar Hills Academy.
The project has been slowed by the requirement for a coastal development permit from the City of San Diego and the lawsuit, which alleges the district failed to comply with California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) with its “insufficient” Mitigated Negative Declaration (MND) that concluded that the rebuild will result in no significant impacts on the environment. At the Feb. 24 meeting, the board vacated its approval of the MND to begin work on a “focused” environmental impact report.
Judge issues ruling in Heights rebuild lawsuit
The Del Mar Heights rebuild as seen from Mira Montana.
(Courtesy)
The Del Mar Union School District must address three outstanding environmental issues before continuing on with its Del Mar Heights School rebuild, according to a Dec. 22 ruling in the lawsuit against the district by Save the Field.
Save the Field’s lawsuit centers on the belief that the district’s California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) process was flawed, resulting in an incomplete and inaccurate environmental review. Judge Joel R. Wohlfeil found that the “abbreviated environmental process employed by district did not, in part, comply with CEQA.” The judge concluded while there were three areas that the district should study further, 10 out of the 13 complaints against the district were without merit.