‘Enough is enough.’ Fresno residents sue over new environmental review plan for the city
A recently approved City of Fresno plan for streamlining the environmental review process for new development projects is being challenged in Superior Court by residents of south Fresno.
The South Fresno Community Alliance, represented by the Leadership Counsel for Justice and Accountability, along with other advocates, allege the environmental review document, known as the Program Environmental Impact Report, or PEIR, fails at protecting or mitigating the “cascading impacts of transforming South Fresno neighborhoods into industrial and warehouse zones.”
Residents say the community’s neighborhoods have already been damaged by emissions from existing industrial uses, warehouse distribution centers, landfills, freeway traffic, and the use of local roads for heavy diesel truck traffic.
These neighborhoods rank among the most pollution-burdened in the state according to the California Communities Environmental Health Screening Tool. The tool was created by the California Environmental Protection Agency to identify communities by census tract which are disproportionately burdened by and vulnerable to multiple sources of pollution.
“Our community has the right to feel safe and not be continually weighed down by the environmental impacts of trucks, air pollution, and large facilities. We deserve a decent quality of life. The City’s conversion of our neighborhoods into industrial zones negatively impacts our health, housing, and well-being. Enough is enough. We need assurances that we will be protected,” said Katie Taylor, a South Fresno Community Alliance member, in a statement.
Filed on Oct. 29, the petition alleges the faulty PEIR will create worse air quality, more traffic, noise and threaten water quality and availability.
The court petition says the document also does a poor job of analyzing any future project’s greenhouse gas impacts.
“It relies largely on vague, nonbinding policies from the General Plan to reduce GHG emissions, and fails to establish that compliance with these policies would be sufficient to meet the state’s greenhouse gas emission reduction mandates,” the lawsuit states.
The petition alleges south Fresno residents’ concerns and input were ignored in the process of approving the PEIR that will replace the expired Master Environmental Impact Review and serve as the new tool for approving projects.
Ashley Werner, the directing attorney at the leadership council, said the residents felt litigation was the only option to try and protect themselves from the effects of any new projects.
“The City must heed residents’ calls for City policies and practices that safeguard and promote environmental health, housing quality, and access to opportunity for all neighborhoods and that starts with the City’s compliance with environmental laws,” she said.
Sontaya Rose, director of communications for Mayor Jerry Dyer, said the city has worked diligently to take into consideration concerns from the residents.
“The environmental studies and findings adopted by the City consist of over 4300 pages and 46 mitigation measures that are designed to increase current protections for all residents from impacts during future growth city wide,” Rose said.
The city also received over half a dozen comment letters from lawyers representing an advocacy group in South Fresno and “that group has elected to sue the City in court over some of the numerous issues raised in the lawyers comment letters.”
“The City fully complied with all the applicable environmental laws and the City looks forward to presenting its arguments in court,” Rose said.
The petition asks a judge to set aside the city’s certification of the PEIR and to not allow the use of the planning document to approve any projects until they comply with the California Environmental Quality Act.
City Councilmember Miguel Arias said that while he has not seen the lawsuit, he understands the residents’ concerns.
“Prior administrations and councils did not take into account the significant environmental impacts that millions of square feet of warehouse space would have on the area,” Arias said. “Since I have arrived we have not approved any new facilities without a settlement.”
Arias is referring to an agreement reached in April between the city and south Fresno residents to establish a community fund to mitigate the effects that increased traffic, noise, light and air pollution will have on the area from the construction of a second Amazon fulfillment center in the area.
Arias, who represents the region, said the new environmental review process does not preclude the city from providing mitigation measures for any future projects that may create a negative impact on the community.
This story was originally published November 2, 2021 at 5:09 PM.
