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November 8, 2024 Page 10 7357-013acp printed on recycled paper violations of law.50 The court held that the piecemeal review “failed to take into account the cumulative impacts from the overall project, which… warranted full environmental review.”51 The court held that this approach violated CEQA because “Arviv was attempting to go around the rules by developing in a piecemeal fashion in order to take advantage of environmental exemptions…”52 Similarly here, the County has impermissibly piecemealed its environmental review of this Project from the Senior East County Lakes Project. The court in Arviv explained that: This entire case is the direct result of inadequate, or misleading, project descriptions. In other words, it is entirely possible a two-house project— located somewhere other than the steep slopes of the Mulholland Scenic Parkway Area—may in fact have a de minimus, or mitigatable, effect on the local environment. However, Arviv never intended a two or three house project. As he admitted at the hearing before the Commission, he always envisioned a 21-house development. The significance of an accurate project description is manifest, where, as here, cumulative environmental impacts may be disguised or minimized by filing numerous, serial applications.53 By the time the Commission made its decision the record before it contained substantial evidence of environmental impacts regarding all the projects. For example, it heard concrete evidence of problems neighboring residents had encountered from construction of the first five homes on Woodstock Road. Residents and representatives from homeowners associations described mud slides, rockslides, soil erosion and other slope failures which occurred during grading for the constructed homes. The relevant personal observations of these residents alone constitutes substantial evidence of environmental impacts.54 Here, substantial evidence in the record and from EBRRD’s expert consultants demonstrates that the Arroyo Lago and Senior East County Lakes Project are part of a single overarching development which will result in significant individual and cumulative impacts. The County must prepare a single EIR to address the combined impacts of the Arroyo Lago and Senior East County Lakes 50 Arviv, supra, at 1346. [The five existing houses exceeded the height restrictions of the Mulholland Scenic Parkway Specific Plan, the Hillside ordinance, as well as the height limitations specified in the permits issued by the City.] 51 Id. at 1342. 52 Id at 1340. 53 Id. at 1346. 54 Id.