A court ruled that additional environmental review will be needed for modifications of the Lytle Creek Ranch project.

This massive project of over 8,000 housing units would be built in a floodplain using 7 miles of levees. Such channelization of creeks would never be allowed in other jurisdictions. As Lytle Creek is a rare location where the natural flooding upon which the animal depends is still present, the endangered San Bernardino kangaroo rat (SBKR) would be driven toward extinction. EHL has been battling this project for nearly a decade. 

When the developer modified the project, the City ignored many circumstances that had changed since original approval in 2010. These included impacts to groundwater recharge and hydrology, and the failure of past mitigation for SBKR. EHL and Save Lytle Creek Wash sued, and while the court did not agree with all of our claims, it did find that the loss of recharge basins needed additional review under the California Environmental Quality Act. As a result, this important issue will get more attention.

EHL is represented by Chatten-Brown & Carstens.