06-04-2025
South Fresno community groups score another victory with appeals court ruling
For several decades, south Fresno residents were powerless in preventing polluting industries and distribution centers from getting shoved down their throats – regardless of the deleterious effects on their health.
Recently they've been fighting back. And in an increasing number of cases, fighting back and winning.
The latest example came in March when a state appeals court sided with community groups in their ongoing legal battle with Caltrans and the Federal Highway Administration over major expansions of the North Avenue and American Avenue freeway interchanges on Highway 99.
The appellate court granted a petition submitted in November by Friends of Calwa Inc. and Fresno Building Healthy Communities that should – without wading too deep into the legal muck – finally compel Caltrans to justify its environmental review for the $140 million project.
Opinion
The same environmental review which, as you may recall, conveniently left out Fresno County's proposed 2,940-acre industrial park east of 99 that can't proceed without improved freeway access and will unquestionably bring more air pollution and truck traffic to already overburdened neighborhoods.
In fact, Caltrans' analysis of the interchange expansion claimed there were no communities in the project area that would be impacted. Completely disregarding tens of thousands of south Fresno residents who live within breathing distance.
Such glaring omissions triggered Friends of Calwa and Fresno BHC in March 2023 to file a lawsuit against Caltrans and FHA in federal district court over the agencies' approval of the project that challenged the legality of the environmental review under state and federal laws.
Rather than defend its shoddy work, Caltrans restored to legal tactics intended to price out the opposition (i.e. cross-filing the federal suit in state court) and bickered over technicalities. In October, it scored a temporary victory when a Fresno Superior Court judge granted Caltrans' motion for summary adjudication to throw out any claims against the California Environmental Quality Act because the community groups filed their arguments too late.
Last month's California Fifth Appellate Court decision put an end to that nonsense. It ordered the Fresno Superior Court to vacate its October ruling and conduct further hearings to determine whether Caltrans' environmental review violated state law.
Now, at last, we might get somewhere.
Michael Claiborne, directing attorney for Leadership Counsel for Justice and Accountability, one of the legal firms representing Friends of Calwa and Fresno BHC, said writs of mandate that seek review of a lower court's order are 'rarely granted.'
'My understanding is that more than 90% of petitions like this are denied,' Claiborne said. 'This is extraordinary relief reversing an order by the Superior Court prior to final judgment.'
This ruling, it must be noted, does not prevent Caltrans from expanding and improving the 99 freeway interchanges at North and American avenues. Nor was that the groups' ultimate aim.
Friends of Calwa and Fresno BHC simply wanted the project's environmental review to adhere to state and federal law – and for a massive industrial park near the freeway whose traffic will utilize those exits to be included in the study.
Neither request is unreasonable. Not when the negative public health effects of air pollution, including how noxious gas compounds disperse over wide areas, are well-established science.
'The communities of Calwa and Malaga are frustrated and tired of being treated as a dumping ground,' said Laura Moreno, executive director of Friends of Calwa. 'Our neighborhoods deserve transportation projects that don't completely disregard the needs of the people who live here.'
The appeals court decision is the latest in a string of victories by south Fresno residents and their legal teams against the actions of government agencies and municipalities, and the second involving the inadequacy of environmental reviews.
Last August, the same state appeals court ruled in favor of a group called the South Fresno Community Alliance in a lawsuit that successfully challenged the adequacy of the environmental review process the City of Fresno uses for new construction.
Dozens of projects throughout the city were reportedly halted as a result.
Though not in the legal arena, the string of victories by south Fresno residents and community groups includes the rejection of the Measure C transportation tax extension in the November 2022 election. And going back a few more years, the successful Measure P parks tax.
Among the powers-that-be, this recent shift has caused no small amount of consternation. For example, Fresno City Councilmember Mike Karbassi accused law firms like Leadership Counsel of 'economic terrorism' and questioned the motives of 'some people' opposed to the 99 interchange expansion.
'This is straight up about killing economic development in Fresno – that is the goal,' Karbassi said during a December 2023 council meeting.
Instead of making silly statements, why not create economic development that doesn't ignore state and federal laws and worsen living conditions in marginalized neighborhoods?
Is that too much to ask?
'What Caltrans did was illegal – that's what the (appeals) court said,' Moreno said. 'Now we're hoping for them to fix it. Caltrans can still make this right.'
Those don't sound like the words of someone who wants to kill economic development. They sound like someone looking for a solution.
Perhaps that's why south Fresno residents are fighting back, and winning.
