A Sacramento Superior Court judge denied a motion Friday that sought to temporarily bar the City of Citrus Heights from proceeding with plans to demolish its existing city hall and allow Dignity Health to construct a three-story medical office building (MOB) in its place, according to court documents.
Norman Hill, who heads up the group suing the City over the MOB and city hall project, said his “Preserve Our Civic Center” group sought a temporary restraining order after learning the City had planned a July 18 “Cash & Carry” day to liquidate various items and decor from the existing hall’s property. He said Judge Timothy Frawley ultimately rejected the group’s motion for a 10-day restraining order, after finding “the balance of the equities came out in favor of the City” and determining such an order would present a “great hardship for the City.”
City representatives were unavailable for comment by phone and email over the weekend.
The POCC lawsuit, initially filed in April, asks the court to declare the city council’s March 26 approval of the new hall and MOB project to be “invalid and void,” and that the Environmental Impact Report (EIR) prepared for the project “fails to satisfy the requirements of [the California Environmental Quality Act].” It also asks the court to order a “new legally adequate” EIR for the project, and require suspension of all contracts related to construction on the project until alleged violations of CEQA are addressed, according to court filings.
[Learn more: Lawsuit filed against Citrus Heights over MOB, new hall]
Although unsuccessful in temporarily halting progress on the city hall demolition, Hill said his group plans to continue with the lawsuit against the project, estimating it could take until early 2016 to get a final decision from a judge. The retired environmental attorney and Citrus Heights resident said he’s currently awaiting a “big pile” of documents to be released by the City in response to a Public Records Act request.
Note: this story will be updated Monday to include comments from the City, if reached.
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