Trial date set in ongoing Trinitas battle

The Ridge at Trinitas golf course is going to trial.

Calaveras County Superior Court Judge Grant Barrett set an April 22 trial date for a suit by owners Michael and Michelle Nemee alleging the county failed to properly prepare the development’s environmental impact report.
 

 The case has generated heaps of paperwork — including an 11,000-plus-page administrative record — but when Barrett suggested a one-day trial, Janis Elliott, assistant county counsel, countered it would take only a half-day.

“It’s just oral arguments, your honor,” she said.

“I’ll set it for one day to be prudent,” he replied.

He noted that the trial’s eventual judge — who will be selected based on their experience with the California Environmental Quality Act, interpretation of which is central to the case — faces a “considerable amount of reading.”

Lawyer Kenneth Foley, who represents the Nemees, was jokingly incredulous.

“In a case that’s going on for a lifetime, it’ll be done in less than one day?” he asked.

Nevertheless, the trial’s outcome is unlikely to be the final word in the heavily litigated project.

The 280-acre course in the Wallace area is embattled because county officials say it was built without proper review on land zoned for agricultural purposes.     The Nemees contend the county gave the project its blessing and that it qualified as “agritourism” because it also houses an olive orchard.

A new lawsuit may be in the works, as a claim for financial damages filed by the Nemees in early November was denied recently by the county Board of Supervisors.

And the Nemees’ bankruptcy proceedings, begun Oct. 7 to prevent an impending bank foreclosure sale of the property, are continuing to move along.

The April 22 trial will begin at 9 a.m.