The group of plastics manufacturers that earlier this year successfully sued the city over its ban on the carriers has settled a similar lawsuit with Palo Alto.
The Northern California city's prohibition of the synthetic carriers will stay in tact under a deal reached Tuesday with the Save the Plastic Bag Coalition, but the city must perform a full environmental review of the ban before it can be expanded to other retailers beyond grocery stores, the San Jose Mercury News reports:
(Coalition attorney Stephen) Joseph argued Palo Alto's ban was equally ill-considered. But he said Tuesday that he wasn't interested in fighting a lengthy court battle to overturn a rule that so far affects only the four local grocery stores that had not already given up plastic bags voluntarily.
"What concerned us was that Palo Alto was going to go and do more," Joseph said. "We said no way. The city eventually came around and said it will not do any more banning without doing an EIR first, and that's all we're asking."
Manhattan Beach is currently appealing a judge's February decision agreeing with the Coalition's assertion that the city should have completely studied the ban's possible environmental consequences before approving the prohibition about a year ago.
Counterparts in Palo Alto were apparently aware of the suit when it began pursuing a ban this spring, but said their ban was different from Manhattan's because it was a portion of a comprehensive plan to encourage use of reusabale bags.
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