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News Releases » Another Court Victory for the Long-Delayed Monterey High School Stadium Improvement Project

Another Court Victory for the Long-Delayed Monterey High School Stadium Improvement Project

For Immediate Release

October 27, 2023

 

Contact: Marci McFadden, Chief of Communications

831-706-6971

                       

COURT CONFIRMS THAT THE ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW OF THE MONTEREY HIGH SCHOOL STADIUM PROJECT IS NOW COMPLETE AND LEGALLY COMPLIANT

Court acknowledges that MPUSD has fully satisfied the issued writ of mandate and that the writ is discharged  

 

Monterey, CA - On October 23, 2023, Judge Thomas Wills of the Monterey County Superior Court issued the latest order in the case of Preserving the Peace v. Monterey Peninsula Unified School District, which confirms that the Monterey Peninsula Unified School District has “fully complied” with the Writ of Mandate issued in the lawsuit and discharges the writ. This order is MPUSD’s latest victory in the series of legal challenges raised against the long-awaited Dan Albert Stadium Improvement Project at Monterey High School, and confirms that MPUSD has now complied with the California Environmental Quality Act in analyzing the potential impacts arising from the proposed stadium project.

 

The lawsuit, filed on August 27, 2021, sought to set aside MPUSD’s Board of Education’s approval of the stadium project. On June 23, 2023, the court issued a judgment that called for MPUSD to fix two narrow “easily remedied” issues. Notably, plaintiffs had challenged MPUSD’s environmental review on as many as 40-plus different grounds. MPUSD’s Board of Education re-certified an Environmental Impact Report for the project on July 25, 2023, addressing those two issues that the court has now determined has satisfied the judgment. While plaintiffs “Preserving the Peace” have filed an appeal of the judgment, the trial court’s latest order discharges the writ of mandate and confirms the propriety of the Stadium Project under CEQA.

 

The project would construct necessary improvements to the Dan Albert Stadium at Monterey High School and additional athletic facilities on campus, including:

 

  • Converting an existing dirt field adjacent to the Dan Albert Stadium that is used for overflow parking into a softball/multi-use field
  • A 1,920 square foot strength and conditioning center
  • Improvements to the track and field event area
  • Four new, permanent field lights at Dan Albert Stadium
  • Renovation of the stadium to be compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)
  • Replacement of the temporary press box
  • New public address system
  • Installation of separate visitor bleachers on the opposite side of the stadium 

 

Monterey High School Principal Tom Newton said of the ruling, “The court’s latest ruling is an important next-step to allow MPUSD to complete these necessary improvements for student safety. Once complete, Monterey High School soccer programs will no longer have to end practices and games due to darkness, girls’ softball will no longer have to travel to Jacks Park for practices and games, and students will have the opportunity to play in front of a home crowd instead of traveling off-campus to Monterey Peninsula College for football games. The improvements will also help ensure compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act and Title IX. Ultimately, the improvements are beneficial for our students.”

 

The Lawsuit

 

On July 27, 2021, following extensive study and public input, MPUSD’s Governing Board certified an approximately 2,000 page Final Environmental Impact Report (FEIR) that included legally binding mitigation measures that addressed neighborhood concerns including that: 

  1.    Lights will only be used from the months of October through March
  2.   Lights will be turned off by 8 p.m. except for five nights a year
  3.   Lighted fields will not be used on weekends
  4.   Outside groups cannot use the fields after 6:00 p.m. 
  5.   No use of the fields will be allowed on Sundays
  6.   The district will limit the use of the public address system only to necessary announcements  

Plaintiffs “Preserving the Peace” filed a lawsuit on August 27, 2021, in Monterey County Superior Court to halt the project.  In December of 2022, the court threw out all but one of the causes of action against MPUSD and ruled in favor of MPUSD on all major components of the project. 

 

After extensive briefing and multiple days of hearings, on June 5, 2023, the court issued its “Statement of Decision After Reconsideration and Vacating of Earlier Order,” linked here. In that order, Judge Wills identified only two issues – which the court recognized as “easily remedied” by MPUSD – regarding parking supply and demand (which appears to relate to a typographical error in the FEIR that had not previously been raised by plaintiffs) and the addition of a verification process related to the noise mitigation measure adopted by MPUSD, despite the measure being found otherwise sufficient. 

 

After duly considering the court’s ruling and judgment, MPUSD subsequently prepared an amendment to the FEIR (the “Amended FEIR”) that was inclusive of the FEIR and, by addressing the two issues noted above, complied with the judgment. The Board rescinded its certification of the FEIR and recertified the Amended FEIR on July 25, 2023, with MPUSD filing a Writ Return with the court on July 26, 2023, seeking confirmation that the Amended FEIR addressed the court’s concerns.

 

Over plaintiffs’ objections to the Writ Return, the court’s latest order confirms that the Writ has been “fully satisfied” and is discharged. The court’s order therefore also confirms that the Amended FEIR is final, complete, and adequate.  

 

Unfortunately, the litigation on this matter continues to drag on, as the plaintiffs have appealed the trial court’s judgment in MPUSD’s favor. Plaintiffs’ legal counsel has also filed two other lawsuits related to the project. One of those case accuses the California State Architect of having violated the law in approving the plans for the project. The court has already previously agreed with MPUSD that plaintiff’s complaint in that lawsuit was deficient, and after allowing plaintiff to amend, MPUSD and the State Architect again have motions pending to find plaintiff’s complaint deficient and to dismiss that lawsuit. Additionally, plaintiffs and plaintiffs’ legal counsel have made more than 100 Public Records Act requests related to the project to MPUSD over the past four years, resulting in considerable time and expense to produce tens of thousands of pages of records. Plaintiffs and/or plaintiffs’ counsel have also threatened other litigation against MPUSD related to school facilities. 

 

MPUSD must therefore continue to fight to defend the Stadium Improvements Project with hopes of one day soon breaking ground and proceeding with the great benefits for MPUSD students and the community that the project will bring.

 

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