Cory Briggs, the attorney suing Manhattan Village Mall on behalf of a group called the Sensible Citizens of Manhattan Beach, declined this week to identify any members of the group or make them available for an interview. He said he is not required to by law. The group was registered as a nonprofit in May 2014 with Briggs’s office in Upland given as group’s the mailing address.
Briggs’s suit alleges that the mall’s proposed expansion violates the California Environmental Quality Act.
The investigative news site Voice of San Diego reported last year that Briggs has a history of filing similar lawsuits against against cities and developers.
“No attorney sues under the state’s main environmental quality law more than him,” the article states.
Many of the nonprofit groups that Briggs has represented in these lawsuits have similar names, such as Rialto Citizens for Responsible Growth, Concerned Citizens of Vista, Blythe Citizens for Smart Growth, Grow Victorville Smart, Smart Growth Adelanto and Murrietans for Smart Growth.
These groups all share Briggs’s Upland office’s address, according to the Department of Justice’s website.
Briggs filed his suit against the city and mall owner RREEF on Dec. 23, three weeks after the city council gave its approval to the mall renovation.
In the complaint, Briggs asks for damages of over $25,000 and that the project be halted. The lawsuit alleges that the council failed to properly distribute the Environmental Impact Report for public review, that a consultant hired by the city had a conflict of interest because he was paid by RREEF and that the Environmental Impact Report is inadequate.
The suit also alleges that the city failed to give adequate public notice for the project’s Dec. 2 public hearing.
The city has denied the allegations. A representative and lawyer for RREEF did not respond to requests for comment.
Before filing the lawsuit, Briggs represented 3500 Sepulveda LLC, one of the mall’s property owners who objected to aspects of the proposed project. Mark Neumann, who represents 3500 Sepulveda LLC, said that Briggs stopped working for his company after the mall’s renovation was approved on Dec. 2. Neumann said that he is not involved in the lawsuit.
According to City Attorney Quinn Barrow, the Manhattan Village Mall project has not been halted.
“Nothing has delayed the project yet, but it could in the future,” Barrow said.
RREEF must pay the city’s legal fees as part of the conditions of the Master Use Permit that the council awarded to the developer, according to Mayor Wayne Powell. He said that is standard practice.
“That’s the way the city always does it,” said Powell. ER
