MJEOL - Santa Barbara County loses $5.5 million land-use case

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Santa Barbara County

Santa Barbara County loses $5.5 million land-use case

Written by Administrator
Sunday, 28 November 2004
[b]Santa Barbara County loses $5.5 million land-use case[/b] Sacramento Bee November 23, 2004 SANTA MARIA (AP) – Jurors decided a wetlands designation imposed by Santa Barbara County violated the rights of an Orcutt vegetable grower so the county must pay about $5.5 million to the farmer. The Superior Court verdict on Monday represents the largest-ever land-use judgment against Santa Barbara County. After a nearly three-week civil trial before a visiting judge, the jury unanimously agreed that county planners preparing the Orcutt Community Plan recklessly violated the rights of Adams Brothers Farming Inc. when 95 acres along Highway 1 were designated as protected wetlands. The jury assessed actual damages of $5.47 million collectively against the county Planning and Development Department, one of its paid consultants and three current or former employees who helped write the Orcutt planning blueprint in 1977. The jury said the actions were intentional, despicable and done with "malice, oppression or fraud." Defendants included Dan Gira, former deputy director of comprehensive planning, former staff biologist Elihu Gevirtz, Zoning Administrator Noel Langle and wetlands consultant Katherine Rindlaub. They were also assessed $130,000 in punitive damages. Adam Brothers attorney Richard Brenneman said the verdict sets "a new precedent in California and the United States by holding Planning and Development Department personnel and their hired consultants personally responsible for intentionally recording as valid a false wetland delineation of 95 acres on the Adam Brothers property." Attorney David Pettit, who defended Santa Barbara County, didn't comment. Deputy County Counsel Alan Seltzer was surprised, saying "it's difficult to understand how the county could be held liable for (more than) $5 million for not allowing the plaintiffs to farm that land." County Counsel Shane Stark said the largest previous judgments against the county for land-use cases were each in the range of $300,000 to $350,000, in two separate cases several years ago. "The size of this is surprising and so is the fact that the jury rendered punitive damages, when the underlying issue seemed to be the qualifications of the person (Rindlaub) who did the wetlands determination," Stark said. When the Orcutt Community Plan took effect seven years ago, county planners notified Adam Brothers Farming in repeated letters that the 262-acre parcel between Black and Soloman roads included 95 acres designated as protected wetlands. Any farming within 50 feet of the wetlands area required grading and land-use permits from the county and possibly the federal Army Corps of Engineers, the letters warned. In 1999, the company bulldozed the property without permits and allegedly filled in the wetlands area, planting oats and barley there before a stop-work order was issued by the county. The parcel was also raided in May 1999 by agents from the criminal investigation division of the federal Environmental Protection Agency, which filed a lawsuit against Adam Brothers Farming. The federal suit, which seeks fines that could potentially amount to millions of dollars as well as "mitigation fees" to pay for restoring the graded wetlands, is set for trial in Los Angeles in January. It wasn't clear what impact, if any, the Santa Maria verdict would have on the federal case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Lily Chinn, who is handling the case, did not return telephone calls. Source: http://www.calcoast.org/news/wetlands0041123.html

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