A California choose has ordered town Santee to throw out approval of its long-planned Fanita Ranch housing undertaking, ruling that builders hadn’t adequately thought-about how new houses may have an effect on wildfire evacuations.
Eight resolutions and ordinances giving the inexperienced gentle to round 3,000 houses within the hills past Santee Lakes should be overturned, San Diego Superior Courtroom Choose Katherine Bacal not too long ago wrote.
The transfer was the most recent roadblock for a undertaking first proposed a long time in the past and accepted in late 2020 by the Santee Metropolis Council in a 4-1 vote. The lone dissenter, Councilman Stephen Houlahan, is now not in workplace.
Financial downturns and neighborhood opposition have derailed momentum previously, and the choose had beforehand stated the plan didn’t totally tackle whether or not 1000's of latest residents would have time to flee throughout an emergency.
The undertaking, overseen by HomeFed Fanita Rancho shouldn't be useless, and one of many builders stated they might revise their environmental influence report to handle the choose’s issues.
Jeff O’Connor, vice chairman of the Carlsbad-based HomeFed Corp., stated the rewrite would possible take about three months. The general public would then have 45 days to weigh in earlier than officers may re-approve the undertaking, he stated.
“We’re very hopeful and assured that town council will do this,” O’Connor stated in an interview.
It was not instantly clear when the council would possibly reply to the ruling. The following public assembly is Wednesday, although the agenda doesn't point out Fanita Ranch.
Messages left with town’s supervisor and legal professional weren't instantly returned.
The choice was celebrated by environmental teams that sued to cease the undertaking, arguing that extra houses would solely improve the danger of fireside.
The undertaking’s environmental report specifically was “insufficient and deceptive,” Peter Broderick, a lawyer with the Heart for Organic Range, stated in an interview.
Broderick’s group, together with the native group Protect Wild Santee and two different nonprofits, the Endangered Habitats League and the California Chaparral Institute, are additionally “entitled to get well prices in an quantity to be decided,” the choose wrote.
Bacal’s ruling was dated March 25 and filed April 6.
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