City Settles Lawsuit with Friends of Moraga Canyon

From a City of Piedmont press release:

At the City Council meeting on November 19, 2012, Mayor John Chiang announced that the City of Piedmont has reached and executed an agreement with the Friends of Moraga Canyon (FOMC) to settle the lawsuit brought by that organization regarding the CEQA process for the Blair Park element of the Moraga Canyon Sports Fields Project.

Blair Park, LLC and the Piedmont Recreational Facilities Organization (PRFO) have also joined in the settlement.

To settle the lawsuit, the City will pay $15,000 to the attorneys who represented FOMC in the suit.

The City will also allocate $15,000 to hire a consultant to develop and implement a landscape plan at Blair Park. Under the terms of the agreement, the City will consult with FOMC on the development and implementation of the landscape plan. Both sums of money shall be paid from the indemnification fund provided for in the Reimbursement and Indemnification Agreement between the City and PRFO.

In exchange for the above, FOMC will dismiss the lawsuit against the City with prejudice and agree not to seek any further costs or attorneys’ fees from the City.

The full text of the settlement agreement is posted on the City’s web site at http://www.ci.piedmont.ca.us 

FOMC brought a lawsuit challenging, on environmental grounds, the City’s approval of the Blair Park element of the Moraga Canyon Sports Fields Project. After PRFO, the project’s proponent, withdrew the project, the City Council rescinded its approval of the matter at its meeting of May 7, 2012.

Once approval of the project was rescinded, the only remaining matter in the lawsuit was FOMC’s contention that they were entitled to attorneys’ fees. This agreement settles that contention.

For further information, contact City Clerk John Tulloch at 420-3040