The San Diego chapter of the Sierra Club filed a lawsuit challenging the County of San Diego’s approval of the Greenhills Ranch sprawl project — a proposed development located in fire-prone rural Lakeside. The suit was filed on July 3.
The East County area is designated by CalFire as a Very High Fire Severity zone, far away from public transit and facilities, which would threaten residents and wildlife.
David Hogan, San Diego Chapter Legal Committee Chair, made this statement:
“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. This project does neither.”
Attorney for Sierra Club Josh Chatten-Brown maintains that the County erred in using the label “infill” as it’s 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.”
Further, 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.
Chapter Chair Lisa Ross stated:
“San Diego is a national biodiversity hotspot. Sierra Club supports development that respects widely accepted wildlife conservation goals in the County. Greenhills Ranch would violate not just the spirit but the law protecting San Diego’s unique habitat.”.
About the Sierra Club:
The San Diego Chapter of the Sierra Club is San Diego’s oldest and largest grassroots environmental organization, encompassing San Diego and Imperial Counties, with more than 13,000 members. Founded in 1948, the San Diego Chapter seeks to preserve the special nature of the San Diego and Imperial Valley areas through grassroots activism, public education, lobbying, and legal action. The Sierra Club is America’s largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization, with more than 3 million members and supporters across all 50 states and Puerto Rico.
Well, the Sierra Club has finally stood up for the environment and challenged another destructive housing project. From 1974 to 1998, I worked as an environmental management specialist in various environmental offices for the County of San Diego. I reviewed every type of discretionary project from lot splits to 2,000 house community plans. For years, we were hounded by the five Republican members of the Board of Supervisors and pro-development members of the Planning Commission. We had dozens of threats against our lives and were often worried our career would terminate if we did not back down. The Sierra Club in that time period were more concerned about protecting rock climbing areas than protecting future owners from wildfires or excessive traffic noise. As I say, I am pleased to learn they are taking a stand for the environment.
Hey Ron, that’s a scary experience (“dozens of threats”, career terminated) and we never heard of all that back then. Maybe it’s time for you to write up something longer about it all — we could post here at the Rag.
Ron, I know you and respect you and your opinions, but I have to correct something that you said.
During the 5+ years I was on the executive committee of the San Diego Chapter of the Sierra Club, we challenged or maintained the challenges initiated by earlier ExComs, against the County of San Diego in the courts. We prevailed in every instance I can remember, but most recent in my memory was the proposed housing development in Valley Center and several in the Otay Mesa area. We were also successful in forcing the County have a meaningful Climate Action Plan, not one that relied on offsets of things like planting trees in India, where there could be no meaningful monitoring of their success. I’m proud of many of the things that we did and take exception to your description of the Sierra Club “finally” standing up for the environment.
And, Frank, Ron is not kidding about “dozens of threats” to those in the environmental management field who took their jobs seriously. I had my car vandalized, substantiated threats of “getting even” by prominent developers, etc. I had one threat that was so serious and credible that the state Attorney General’s office got involved. Nearly every environmental planner I knew had similar experiences. I won’t say anything more because more than a few of the people I dealt with are still around and are still litigious, at the very least.
There were times when things got more than a little crazy. I remember one planner I was acquainted with in the Lake Tahoe area who was driving on a mountain road who realized something was wrong with the tires, wheels or suspension of his car. He got out and saw all the lug nuts had been removed. Not likely an accident.
Good history we all need to know (never said Ron was “kidding” btw), and in fact our good friend David Helvarg wrote a book entitled, “War Against the Greens” (of something like that).
Then, of course, there is Karen Silkwood.
Frank, I didn’t think you were kidding and didn’t mean to imply so. I was merely validating Ron’s experiences in an informal way.
You mention Karen Silkwood, which was, of course, a very serious and dramatic attempt to silence someone who was trying to stop very serious events that could have impacts on millions. Unfortunately, these types of attempts to silence people of good will doing their jobs happen at all levels, including local and relatively mundane actions. It could just be a threat to contact a politician who has some authority over you, or it could be a direct threat to your personal safety. And it’s often difficult to tell if an individual is merely blowing off steam or actually means the threat. I remember one incident where I thought disgruntled permit applicant was just making noise, until I was told by one of his employees that I really had better watch out for myself because he had connections with people who were likely to harm me (physically!) if he asked.
I’ll leave it to your imagination to fill in the details.
Geez Paul! These untold stories are hair-raising and I wish people knew them.