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Time to Fix the Broken Equal Access to Justice Act

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16 May, 2025

This post was originally published on Healthy Forest

The Equal Access to Justice Act (EAJA) was created with good intentions—to protect individuals and small businesses from being steamrolled by the federal government. Passed in 1980, EAJA was meant to level the playing field by reimbursing legal costs when citizens successfully challenged government overreach. But decades later, this once-noble law has become a tool for abuse. Well-funded anti-forestry groups now exploit EAJA to block the very forest management projects that communities and public lands desperately need.

Under EAJA, plaintiffs can recover attorney fees from the federal government when they prevail or settle in court. But here’s the catch: even a partial victory or procedural settlement can trigger these payments, regardless of the lawsuit’s broader merit or public benefit. Many environmental litigants have figured this out—and they’re profiting from it. By suing over fuel reduction and forest health projects, they collect taxpayer-funded attorney fees while obstructing active forest management under the guise of protecting the environment.

The Forest Service alone pays out an estimated $1 million per year in EAJA awards. Including other federal land and wildlife agencies, annual costs likely range from $2 to $3 million. These figures don’t account for the untold hours of agency staff time, lost productivity, or missed opportunities to implement science-based forest management. In fact, in some regions, more than half of annual land management budgets are now consumed by environmental analysis and litigation defense—rather than project implementation.

Watch: Highlights of the March 6, 2025 hearing for the Fix Our Forests Act in the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee. Chairman John Boozman (R-AR) and Sen. Adam Schiff question U.S. Forest Service Acting Associate Chief Chris French about the impacts of anti-forestry litigation on federal forest management, and why the Forest Service struggles to remove dead and dying trees after a wildfire. Click here to view video on YouTube.

Worse still, federal agencies are not even required to track where this money goes. Congress eliminated EAJA reporting requirements in 1995. A 2012 Journal of Legislation article found that EAJA has morphed from a legal backstop into a well-funded engine of obstruction. It documented how massive 501(c)(3) organizations routinely evade statutory limits on attorney fees, receive excessive awards, and litigate without having any direct financial stake in the outcomes. These lawsuits aren’t about protecting the environment. They’re about stopping management at all costs, regardless of the consequences for forest health, public safety, or rural jobs.

The Trump Administration has attempted to address some of these legal abuses through executive orders encouraging bonding requirements and stricter enforcement of court procedures. These are helpful first steps. But EAJA reform must ultimately come from Congress. Past legislative efforts—including the Government Litigation Savings Act and earlier versions of the Resilient Federal Forests Act—would have limited attorney fees, reinstated transparency, and required plaintiffs to post bonds when seeking to block forest projects. Those reforms were sensible then, and they’re urgently needed now.

Unfortunately, these provisions are missing from today’s key forestry proposals, including the Fix Our Forests Act. That should change.

EAJA was never meant to serve as a blank check for serial litigants. It was designed to ensure fairness, not to fuel a business model based on obstruction. Without reform, taxpayers will continue funding lawsuits that delay or derail the forest projects we so urgently need. It’s time to fix EAJA and return the law to its original purpose—protecting citizens, not empowering ideological anti-forestry groups.

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Source: Healthy Forest

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Urban 'placemaking' focus for $85m recreation centre

Urban 'placemaking' focus for $85m recreation centre

Sydney developer Billbergia Group has announced the Rhodes Recreation Centre — an $85 million, 9200 m2 multi-purpose community hub in Sydney’s Inner West.

Located at 6 Gauthorpe St and designed by architectural firm SJB, the recreation centre is in a three-level podium building beneath two high-rise residential towers — the 48-level Peake and 43-level Oasis. Together, they form stage two of the developer’s Rhodes Central Masterplan — a $3 billion, three-stage town centre project.

The Rhodes Recreation Centre was delivered under a $97 million Voluntary Planning Agreement (VPA) between the developer and City of Canada Bay Council. It will be handed over to council next month and is set to open later this year. Once complete, the masterplan will have delivered 25,000 m2 of dedicated public amenity, including retail, community facilities and open space.

With the NSW Government’s housing reforms set to address the housing shortage, the recreation centre will reflect the importance of ‘placemaking’ — a collaborative approach to designing and managing public spaces that enhances community wellbeing and fosters connections between people and their environment — in planning new urban communities.

It also presents a pathway for public and private sectors to collaborate and create social infrastructure while increasing housing supply in fast-growing suburbs.

The recreation centre is set to add vibrancy and pedestrian activity to the local streetscape, providing a diverse range of facilities that enhance the livability of the evolving suburb. These community amenities include two full-sized indoor sports courts, a gymnastics centre, a 70-place childcare centre, a community lounge, allied health services, and bookable spaces for local groups and events. It also provides a gym with cardio equipment, weights, group fitness rooms, a creche and an outdoor terrace, alongside a range of sustainability features.

Facilities at the Rhodes Recreation Centre. Images supplied.

“Rhodes Recreation Centre is the community heart of our high-density TOD development, bringing to life Billbergia’s vision for a future-focused, livable urban environment that prioritises amenity, not just density,” said Saul Moran, Development Director – Planning and Design at Billbergia.

The amenities within the two residential towers include a swimming pool, spa, sauna, children’s play area, library and theatre rooms. Pedestrian connections and through-site links provide access to Rhodes railway station and the Homebush Bay waterfront.

“The Rhodes Recreation Centre stands as a benchmark in successful public–private collaboration. Through a VPA with Canada Bay Council, we’ve created a pathway to unlock additional housing supply while delivering significant, lasting community infrastructure. It’s a clear demonstration of how thoughtful public and private partnerships can shape vibrant, livable neighbourhoods,” Moran said.

Located adjacent to Rhodes railway station, stage one of Billbergia’s Rhodes Central Masterplan was completed in 2021 and included the 13,000 m2 Rhodes Central Shopping Centre, with convenience retail, a Woolworths supermarket, medical facilities and the Bamboo Lane dining precinct.

Other previous projects include the 1.2 ha Phoenix Park in Rhodes, the $63 million Bennelong Bridge, the popular Baylink Shuttle service, the 3500 m2 Wentworth Point Community Centre and Library, and the Wentworth Point Pop-Up Town Square.

Billbergia’s ongoing focus on placemaking and social infrastructure also includes the $8.4 million delivery of a library at its mixed-tenure development, Arncliffe Central, in Sydney’s south. There is the potential for 75% of Arncliffe Central’s dwellings to be dedicated to social, affordable and essential worker rental housing, along with 3400 m2 allocated to childcare, convenience retail and cafes, and a 4000 m2 park with play space for both residents and the broader community.

Top image caption: The Rhodes Recreation Centre location with two planned residential towers, Peake and Oasis. Image supplied.

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