Judge Shuts Down Fanita Ranch Project

The long-running Fanita Ranch battle in Santee has reached a new crescendo, as a judge in San Diego has struck down the project’s environmental impact report – the latest in a series of decisions that focuses on wildfire evaluation routes as part of environmental analysis. The battle over Fanita Ranch goes back more than 40 years, when a 1980s developer proposed 14,000 houses on the ranch. In 1999, Santee voters rejected a 3,000-home project. In 2012, an appellate court shot down the EIR for a 1,380-home development proposal. In 2020, the City approved a new proposal for 3,000 homes, designed by DPZ, by a 4-1 vote. Environmentalists again sued, challenging the EIR on a number of grounds. In her tentative ruling, San Diego County Superior Court Judge Katherine Bacal upheld the EIR on many grounds but struck down the EIR largely over the wildfire evaluation route analysis. Bacal is the same judge who found fault last year with the City of San Diego’s EIR on the proposed height increases in the Midway district.

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