Dehne v. County of Santa Clara

In Dehne v. County of Santa Clara (1981) 115 Cal. App. 3d 827, the owner of a cement plant and limestone quarry wanted to reconstruct the plant and modernize it. The plant and quarry occupied approximately one-third of a 3,300-acre tract of land. The new plant would be located on two of the six acres of the old plant. The reconstruction of the new plant would remove smokestacks and replace them with air pollution control mechanisms, reduce the amount of water used in the manufacturing process, and reposition the plant to make it less visible from the surrounding area. (Id. at pp. 831-832.) The county planning commission in Dehne concluded that the reconstruction of the plant was exempt from CEQA under the exemption for replacement or reconstruction of existing structures and facilities. The county board of supervisors affirmed the planning commission's decision. ( Dehne, supra, 115 Cal. App. 3d at pp. 833-834.) The petitioner unsuccessfully contended in the Court of Appeal that the exemption in question required that the new structures and facilities be constructed on the exact same footprint as the structures and facilities being replaced. The court in Dehne reasoned that under the Guidelines, which permit replacement structures of substantially the same size, "This implies that, for the exemption to have internal consistency, 'same site' must be construed in a way that includes structures of 'substantially' the same size, not precisely or literally the same size, as old structures. Obviously, the site need not be in exactly the same location if the new structure need not be exactly the same size." ( Dehne, supra, 115 Cal. App. 3d at p. 837.) The court also noted that the new facilities would remain within the boundaries of the old facility, in an area surrounded by the rest of the cement manufacturer's property. ( Id. at p. 838.) The court in Dehne thus viewed the "same site" (Guidelines, 15302) as not merely the physical footprint of the existing structure, but rather as the entire lot on which the cement plant was built. In Dehne, the new plant was to be "completely within the actual layout area of the old plant" that was surrounded by unused acreage. ( Dehne, supra, 115 Cal. App. 3d at p. 837.)