JUDGE RULES AGAINST SANTEE’S FANITA RANCH; CITY MULLS APPEAL

Court finds City Council should have allowed citizens to vote on ballot initiative before approving project

By Mike Allen

Photo: Fanita Ranch site, courtesy of Preserve Wild Santee

August 15, 2024 (Santee) -- Santee’s Fanita Ranch project, which would put about 3,000 new homes into the northwest quarter of the city, was dealt another set back last week when a Superior Court judge ruled that the City Council didn’t follow its own rules regarding new development.

Judge Katherine Bacal ruled in favor of the legal challenge to the project from three environmental groups led by Preserve Wild Santee, the same coalition that challenged the project in 2020 on the grounds that an emergency wildfire evacuation plan for Fanita Ranch was inadequate.

Bacal ordered Santee to rescind its approval of Fanita Ranch, granted in 2020, and to revise its environmental report to account for emergency evacuations. After the city complied with that order, it approved the project in 2022 and deemed it as essential housing and complying with recently passed state laws to encourage new housing construction.

Bacal ruled that the city illegally circumvented its own rules that called for any new development triggering a change in its general plan to require approval from a majority of local voters.

Mayor John Minto said the Bacal recent ruling is still being discussed by attorneys for possible appeal, but it appears to call into question existing state laws. “This judge has continuously ruled against municipalities (in California) and new development,” he said. “She is afraid of the environmental community and is unwilling to follow the rule of law to make the right decisions.”

Meanwhile, the plaintiffs said the judge got it right. “We are pleased that the court saw through this transparent end run on the rights of Santee voters,” said Dan Silver, director of Endangered Habitats League. “Future development proposals for this property needs to be submitted to the voters.”

In addition to Endangered Habitats League, the plaintiffs included the Center for Biological Diversity and Preserve Wild Santee, an environmental advocacy group that has a long track record opposing any development on the 2,600 acre Fanita Ranch.

“This ruling is another huge setback to the city’s attempts to develop the rich wildlife habitat and very high fire hazard area of Fanita Ranch,” said Van Collinsworth of Preserve Wild Santee. “All of these attempts have failed for at least a quarter century. It’s time to put this dangerous project proposal to rest once and for all.”

Jeff O’Connor, vice president of HomeFed Corp., the project developer since 2011, said the city of Santee will likely appeal Bacal’s ruling on the basis that the city was following state laws passed by the Legislature and signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom to create much needed affordable housing.

He said Bacal’s ruling included upholding the city’s EIR and its wildfire evacuation plan. He said HomeFed’s plan will designate 150 units of the nearly 3,000 as workforce housing, meaning these will be sold for below market rate prices, but it’s too early to say what that price range would be. The current median price for a single family house in Santee is $803,000 according to real estate firm Redfin.

O’Connor also said HomeFed is contributing $2.6 million to Santee’s affordable housing program, as well as committing some $50 million towards expanding State Route 52 by one additional lane in each direction near Mast Boulevard as part of its mitigation of what is expected to be at least 8,000 new residents to the city with a current population of about 60,000.

Minto said legal fees involving Fanita Ranch are considerable over the years, but in this case HomeFed has agreed to pay for those costs. The Carlsbad-based developer was acquired by the Jeffries Group, and has no affiliation with former San Diego home lender, HomeFed Bank, which failed in the early 1990s.