By Tony Hicks – The environmental group Save Mount Diablo is claiming a “major” victory in its challenge to the city of Pittsburg’s approval of the 1,650-unit Faria/Southwest Hills project, proposed by Seeno company Discovery Builders.
On Feb. 10, a Contra Costa County Superior Court judge ruled the city’s environmental impact report (EIR) was inadequate — the basis of Save Mount Diablo’s legal challenge to the project, which the Pittsburg City Council approved in February 2021.
“The court’s decision says to developers, ‘You don’t get to kick the can down the road. You have to do a thorough analysis of your project’s impacts before you lock in project approvals,'” said Winter King, Save Mount Diablo’s attorney, on the group’s website. “The court got it right.”
Online court records on Thursday didn’t indicate an appeal of the decision has been filed. Pittsburg’s city attorney wasn’t available Thursday to comment on the city’s next move, which could be to redo the EIR.
The massive residential subdivision was planned for 606 acres of ridgeline and hillside grazing land in what is currently unincorporated land just south of Pittsburg, which would annex the development.
Save Mount Diablo contends it’s a “biologically rich site (that) supports sensitive wildlife species and rare plants and is in one of the most visible and most environmentally constrained areas of the county.”
The group also says, “The Faria project would have fragmented open space and damaged wildlife corridors.
The proposed housing development would have changed the beautiful green hills forever by annexing the property to the city of Pittsburg and locating 1,650 new residences far from jobs, transit, and services.”
According to Save Mount Diablo, the court found the EIR deficient in four areas: It didn’t properly analyze the impact of 150 accessory dwelling units that were added to the project; It didn’t include a baseline description of biological resources that could be impacted; It didn’t consider the water supply or air quality impacts.
We need a similar effort to “Save the Weapons Station” (and all of the Highway 4 corridor) from the likes of the City Council and the Seeno gang! There’s no water, power, freeway space etc. for the idiotic development proposed.
In other words, another corrupt Seeno development which would throw a few bucks at the environment after causing major harm, all in the name of profits over Pittsburg.
Maybe its karma from all the Oaks bulldozer for Crystal Ranch.
Not to forget the Grizzly Island area of Suisun Marsh..(Solano Co)…..Seeno has his meat hooks into that also……as does another former developer Al Davis (deceased)…he wants to put a huge project that the county says will be just as profitable as the Monterey Bay Aquarium only this would be to celebrate the ‘Pacific Flyway’ that would allow the paying public to view ducks, geese, swans and other migratory birds.
This marsh area is one of the most protected areas in the state and now they want to allow this.
great news!!
I don’t favor or resent the project. What sticks out is the article presents only one side. I prefer independence from journalists.
Nothing to stop Seeno for going forward like his other projects. Gets a penalty, pays it then continues. He’s a scumbag!!!
@Hayden Barsotti….It’s a family tradition so to say, his Grandpappy was an a-hole too.
.
Ask any reputable building inspector and he/she will tell you Seeno homes are built like total CRAP.
.
Anyone who buys a Seeno house is a FOOL.
.
I owned a Seeno home once. Bought it new. Never will buy one again. On another topic, where is the water going to come from for all these homes and developments? The city folks that approve these projects are nuts.
Save Mt. Diablo and CEQA are perfect examples of why homes are so expensive in CA. The city approved the project already. All this is doing is adding to the cost of housing.
All of the Seeno haters on this site must live in Black Hawk and have money to burn. Seeno builds an affordable .
If you want to know about quality home building the last person you should ask is an inspector.
You must work for Seeno. They do build crap houses. I’ve done enough repairs in the, to see how quickly and cheaply they are thrown together. Also the simple fact this area is quickly getting to where it cannot support anymore housing due to heavy traffic congestion lack of any new water sources to provide adequate water for them with out penalizing the already existing communities with more water restrictions. The extra burden on the utilities that are already getting to the point of over use, we all have had to deal with the rolling black outs Building and building more houses is only creating a bigger problem for everyone. If you want cheap houses move out of the Bay Area. It is just a expensive area to live in and quality of life is getting worse with continued over population of those area
@JRocks…..”All this is doing is adding to the cost of housing.”…Good, if you can’t afford it, there are other places to live. I don’t see why people whine about it, it’s called “Living within your means”, not that hard of a concept.
Sorry buckwheat – I don’t live in Blackhawk and I can’t stand Seeno.
Just as I can’t stand any other criminal.
The infrastructure can’t support this development. I speak of water, sewer, power, schools, roads/bridges etc….
Housing will be built there. We need more housing. We do NOT need more open space, we have plenty. It’s funny how people who own homes go after new builds, but stopping it just continues the housing shortage and increasing prices. Increase supply and prices won’t escalate nearly as much.
We need more open space and we will stop housing from being built there.
We need to slow population growth, build vertically and sustainably in areas we already ruined for human habitation.
Seeno never loses.
Thank goodness. No more people, no more traffic. Can’t manage the people we have.