The San Diego Chapter of the Sierra Club filed a lawsuit on July 3, challenging the County of San Diego’s approval of the Greenhills Ranch sprawl project. The proposed development is in an East County area designated by CalFire as a Very High Fire Severity zone, far away from public transit and facilities. The project is located approximately 300 feet north of the intersection of Adlai Road and Audubon Road in the Lakeside Community Plan Area, in unincorporated San Diego County. On June 5, the County Board of Supervisors held a hearing and approved the project.
The project includes a Specific Plan Amendment to amend the Greenhills Ranch Specific Plan (GRSP) to include development specifications and regulations for Phase II of the GRSP; a Rezone will add the “D” Special Area Regulation to require a Site Plan; and the tentative map will subdivide the 36.03-acre site into 76 lots including 63 single family residential lots. Residential lots will range in size from 5,119 square feet to 11,578 square feet. Approximately 18.64 acres will be dedicated as open space on the tentative map.
“Greenhills Ranch is textbook wasteful urban sprawl development on open space in a fire prone area. Sierra Club supports real infill projects that are close to transportation services and include affordable housing,” said David Hogan, San Diego Chapter Legal Committee Chair in a press release. “This project does neither.”
Attorney for Sierra Club Josh Chatten-Brown maintains that the County erred in using the label “infill” a label typically reserved for climate and land-friendly developments to justify approval.
“Far from an infill project, this is a low-density, car-dependent development that will only add to traffic congestion, air pollution and put residents at unnecessary risk from wildfires.”
The lawsuit filed under the California Environmental Quality Act maintains that the project is a threat to several species of rare wildlife within the Lake Jennings/Wildcat Canyon Biological Resources Core Area, including coastal cactus wren and California gnatcatcher. The Project site is predominantly comprised of Diegan coastal sage scrub and Riversidian upland sage scrub habitat. The site is within the Lake Jennings/Wildcat Canyon Core Area, a designated biological core area and Pre-Approved Mitigation Area within the South County Subarea Plan under the County-wide Multiple Species Conservation Program.
“San Diego is a national biodiversity hotspot. Sierra Club supports development that respects widely accepted wildlife conservation goals in the County,” stated Chapter Chair Lisa Ross. “Greenhills Ranch would violate not just the spirit but the law protecting San Diego’s unique habitat.”
