Santa Cruz County Fairgrounds Sued Over Environmental Impacts and Lack of Transparency

For more than a year, Santa Cruz local Max Kelly attempted to communicate with the Santa Cruz County Fairgrounds on issues of noise, pollution and environmental impacts.

Feeling the fairgrounds was unresponsive, Kelly and the organization he helped found in January, Community Alliance for Fairgrounds Accountability (CAFA), filed a lawsuit against the Fairground’s board of directors on Wednesday in Sacramento County Superior Court.

The last straw for CAFA members—who comprise more than 100 Santa Cruz County locals—came when the board of directors decided to claim a categorical exemption from a California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) review for upcoming events. They did so in light of a rodeo planned at the Fairgrounds, located in Watsonville, in October.

“We have an issue with the process being exempted,” said Kelly. “For one, it’s illegal. Secondly, the public would like some transparency in the decision-making process.”

The public legally had 35 days to speak up, so CAFA filed a lawsuit with Santa Cruz-based Wittwer & Parkin, LLP, which specializes in environmental and land-use law.

CAFA members are pro-fair, said Kelly, but had become fed up with an expanding number of issues at the fairgrounds that they found to be beyond their control. They saw increased noise from the rodeo track, manure runoff into Salsipuedes Creek and farmers markets “that had escalated into a party,” said Kelly.

He said the board of directors had public meetings last year, but since November has not offered an opportunity for public comment.

“The Fairgrounds' current piecemeal approach to approving amplified uses and new events is illegal under CEQA,” wrote CAFA in a press release on Wednesday. “It’s quite simply time for the Fairgrounds to address, once and for all, policies and laws governing noise, environment, as well as legal requirements for transparency.”

The directors are withholding comment while they review the lawsuit. Still, fair leaders have previously maintained that events such as the rodeo are similar to ongoing equestrian shows, which predate the CEQA and are, therefore, not bound by it.