FANITA RANCH CHALLENGED AGAIN IN NEW LAWSUIT

By Mike Allen

July 23, 2025 (Santee) -- As expected, a coalition of environmental groups including Preserve Wild Santee have filed a new legal challenge against Santee’s biggest residential project, Fanita Ranch, which the City Council most recently approved in June.

It was the third time in five years that the Santee City Council gave its approval to the controversial 3,000-house development that has a history dating back to the 1990s.

At every juncture, the environmental coalition which also include the Center for Biological Diversity, the Endangered Habitats League and the California Chaparral Institute, have opposed the project as dangerous due to building in a very high fire hazard severity zone but also non-complaint with existing state laws covering new construction.

Also, the latest suit states that the city is ignoring the passage of Measure N in November 2020, which required a public vote on any new development that increases density and would necessitate amending the city’s General Plan.

To avoid such a vote, the Council in 2022 classified Fanita Ranch as “an essential housing project” that was mandated by the state legislature in response to a severe housing shortage throughout California. That designation meant the project complied with the city’s General Plan, and thus did not require any vote, according to the city.

The latest suit says no provision in state law allows for the city to more than double the density in its General Plan, “much less to thwart the due process and electoral rights of the voters.”

The suit also alleges the city is violating state law because it failed to do a supplemental EIR (environmental impact report) regarding significant new information regarding the project’s wildfire impacts.

In 2020, Superior Court Judge Katherine Bacal ruled the EIR deficient in a number of areas, including details about a citywide evacuation plan in the event of a major wildfire. The city had its consultants revise the plan and gave its approval again in 2022. That was again challenged by the same coalition last year on the grounds that the project violated state planning codes that developments be consistent with a city’s General Plan.

The city again revised its EIR and corrected the technical deficiencies noted by Bacal when she issued a second injunction in 2022.

The environmental coalition said in its suit that clear evidence of the dangers of building in severe fire zones was underscored by the Eaton and Palisades fires in Los Angeles in January and destroyed more than 57,000 acres and killed 29 people.

“The features of the project site make it uniquely at risk for these fast moving, wind-driven fires,” the suit said. “Its topography is in allignment with the Santa Ana winds, which can influence fire spread by creating wind-driven fires.”

City officials, including its fire chief, assert the project is defensible in the event of a major wildfire, and that enhanced evacuation routes will ensure the safety of residents in a timely manner. In a small change, the developer, HomeFed Rancho Fanita, a division of New York investment bank Jeffries Group, said its plan includes 445 “active adult” units.

Fanita Ranch, slated as 2,949 houses, would occupy some 2,600 acres in Santee’s northwest quadrant that abuts MCAS Miramar and Mission Trails Regional Park. The project consists of 1,203 single family houses, and 1,746 condos. The actual development will occur in three separate villages, with 62.5 percent of the land designated as open space, including a working farm, a vineyard, and a new fire station.