LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – The Center for Biological Diversity has filed a lawsuit against the county of Lake over the Board of Supervisors’ approval in July of a major resort and residential project near Middletown.
The group is suing to challenge the approval of the Guenoc Valley Mixed Use Planned Development Project – also known as Maha Guenoc Valley – which the board approved on July 21.
Lotusland Investment Holdings Inc. proposes to build the project on the 16,000-acre Guenoc Ranch. At buildout, there will be close to 1,400 residential estate villas, 400 hotel units and 450 resort residential units.
Representatives of the developer did not respond to requests for comment on the suit.
The first phase of the project, which has a combined 1,415-acre footprint dispersed throughout the overall ranch site, is to include 385 residential villas in five subdivisions; five boutique hotels with 127 hotel units and 141 resort residential cottages; 20 campsites; up to 100 workforce housing co-housing units; resort amenities such as an outdoor entertainment area, spa and wellness amenities, sports fields, equestrian areas, a new golf course and practice facility, camping area and commercial and retail facilities; agricultural production and support facilities; essential accessory facilities, including back of house facilities; 50 temporary workforce hotel units (Entourage Hotel); emergency response and fire center, float plane dock, helipads; and supporting infrastructure, according to planning documents.
“This is the largest land use decision this board will ever make,” Supervisor Rob Brown said at the July 21 meeting.
Brown would turn out to be the lone dissenter, ultimately voting against the project because he said it didn’t delineate than an off-site well would be specifically designated as a “secondary” water source and didn’t including triggers that would be necessary before that water could be used instead of the groundwater source at the site itself.
At the time the board approved the project, the Center for Biological Diversity told Lake County News that a legal challenge was being considered, and it went forward with filing the action, which it said was filed in the Lake County Superior Court on Aug. 21.
County Counsel Anita Grant said the county was served with the suit on Aug. 27.
“Both the county and the project applicant will respond,” Grant said, adding that she believed the county would handle the suit in-house.
The suit was filed just days after the LNU Lightning Complex began to burn through Napa, Lake and four other neighboring counties, with many south Lake County residents under evacuation.
One of the Center for Biological Diversity’s objections to the project is that it is in a fire-prone area that has burned repeatedly over the last several years, and which is only accessible by a two-lane road.
“The massive wildfire currently threatening the site highlights the dangerous absurdity of approving a big development in this fire-prone place,” said Peter Broderick, a staff attorney at the center. “If this luxury resort were already built, residents would be frantically evacuating right now. By approving this project, Lake County put the prospect of development dollars ahead of the safety of the region’s residents and the fragile environment of this beautiful place.”
The center said the California attorney general has repeatedly raised concerns about the county’s failure to analyze the increased risk of wildfire ignitions from the development and how the project would affect wildfire evacuations in the region.
The undeveloped 16,000-acre project site contains oak woodlands, wildlife corridors, and habitat for sensitive wildlife species including golden eagles, foothill yellow-legged frogs and western pond turtles, the center said.
“When built the project will bring thousands of new residents and visitors to this isolated corner of Lake County, resulting in more than 30,000 metric tons of new greenhouse gas emissions every year,” the center said of the project. “The resort will include a golf course, spa, polo grounds, helipad and float plane landing facilities designed to attract ‘high net worth individuals’ looking to escape urban areas, according to promotional materials.”
The lawsuit asserts that the county’s environmental impact report for the project repeatedly violated the California Environmental Quality Act and that the project is inconsistent with the county’s general plan.
The Board of Supervisors agendized the lawsuit for a closed session discussion at its meeting last week.
Grant said the board took no action on the matter at that time.
“We are in the process of preparing the County’s defense and response,” Grant said. “Early days yet.”
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081920 Center for Biological Development Guenoc Valley resort lawsuit by LakeCoNews on Scribd