County Supes Approved Major Use Permit in September
By Jacob Aere / kpbs / October 22, 2026
San Diego County and developers of a solar and battery storage project in East County are facing a lawsuit alleging the project’s environmental review was insufficient.
The suit was filed in San Diego Superior Court last week. It focuses on the Starlight Solar project near the town of Boulevard. The county Board of Supervisors approved a major use permit for the development for last month.
The 588-acre project, which includes a solar farm and a 868 megawatt-hour battery energy storage system, has faced community pushback.
The suit, filed Oct. 15 by a group calling itself the Back Country Community Alliance for Responsible Development, was brought under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA).
“This is CEQA action brought under the California Environmental Quality Act. And what we’re alleging is that the Environmental Impact Report that was prepared and certified by the county was inadequate,” said Jamie Hall, the group’s attorney.
The lawsuit seeks to suspend all activity on the project “pending full compliance with CEQA and with the requirements of law.”
A major concern the suit raises is the potential for lithium-battery fires.
“My client doesn’t believe the county adequately analyzed those impacts, they didn’t analyze the evacuation routes sufficiently, they didn’t assess whether there was enough water for this particular project,” Hall said.
Boulevard residents previously told KPBS they are concerned about the proximity of the battery storage containers to homes and a school.
Fires producing toxic gas have broken out at battery storage facilities in Otay Mesa and Escondido in recent years.
“We don’t think we’ll have a fire and if we do we have enough safeguards in place,” said Jim Whalen, the Starlight Solar project’s land use consultant.
Whalen went on to say that the lawsuit lacks merit. “I don’t think the lawsuit has any merit, number one. We will be addressing the allegations going forward. We’re going to try and see if we can settle,” he said.
He pointed out that projects like Starlight Solar help meet state and county green-energy mandates.
“The county has to approve renewable energy projects at scale, that’s a given. ‘Where do they go,’ is the only question. We think we’ve done the best job fitting a large project into an area with the least number of people being affected,” Whalen said.
A county spokesperson would not comment, citing the pending litigation.
I am truly pleased to see there is still a “California Environmental Quality Act” on the books because I thought Governor Gavin Newsome signed legislation to gut the law that once was touted as “California’s Jewel.” I say this having devoted 24-years as an environmental management specialist for the County of San Diego and worked with public groups on hundreds if not thousands of land use projects all the while protecting steep slopes, ancient Indian sites and sacred lands, endangered species and vital wildlife habitat from massive grading projects, housing, road and underground facilities construction. America has gone to Hell in the last ten years and California began going down when the Building Industry Association pressed the con job that poor people, elderly and low income people would be able to afford housing if only CEQA were erased. The true story is that the American dollar has deflated and a house that cost $50,000 in 1976 now is marketed for $2,500,000 and Californians are too stupid to realize the money is becoming worthless. And now the land will be worthless when battery storage facilities will ease-in data centers and toxic storage centers.