Law360, New York ( April 6, 2017, 5:32 PM EDT) -- In a unanimous 29-page opinion authored by Associate Justice Carol Corrigan, and filed on March 30, 2017, the California Supreme Court held the City of Newport Beach's environmental impact report for a large mixed-use development project proposed on a 400-acre coastal zone site failed to comply with the California Environmental Quality Act. Banning Ranch Conservancy v. City of Newport Beach (Newport Banning Ranch LLC et al., Real Parties in Interest) (2017) ___ Cal.5th ___. The EIR improperly failed to identify areas of the site that might qualify as "environmentally sensitive habitat areas" (ESHA) — unique areas receiving special legal protections under the California Coastal Act — and take such areas into consideration in its analysis of project alternatives and mitigation measures. In light of its reversal of the Court of Appeal's judgment upholding the EIR and project approvals on CEQA grounds, the high court stated it did not need to reach plaintiff and appellant's independent claim that the city also violated a general plan "strategy" requiring it to "[w]ork with appropriate state and federal agencies to identify wetlands and habitats to be preserved and/or restored and those on which development will be permitted."...