Greenebaum v. City of Los Angeles

In Greenebaum v. City of Los Angeles (1984) 153 Cal. App. 3d 391 [200 Cal. Rptr. 237], decided by the same court that decided Kleist v. City of Glendale (1976) (see Greenebaum, supra, 153 Cal. App. 3d at p. 403), the Court of Appeal held that an adoption of the findings of a planning department's deputy advisory agency by a city council was not an improper delegation. (See id. at pp. 398-399, 402-403.) Greenebaum involved a 24-unit condominium project in Los Angeles which made its way from an environmental review committee to a deputy advisory agency to the city planning commission to the city council. Along the way, the planning commission voted two to two, which, according to the opinion, "left intact the action of the deputy advisory agency." ( Greenebaum v. City of Los Angeles, supra, 153 Cal. App. 3d at p. 398.) Nobody raised an issue in Greenebaum regarding the tie vote, however, so the opinion is legally silent on the point. But it is also clear, from Guideline 15090, subdivision (b), that the elected decision makers must have a real confrontation with the EIR; they cannot avoid the required "consideration" by omitting a procedure for appeal.