General Discussion

But last summer, the courts found that Dyer’s recipe was really fatally flawed: Developers could opt out of all the pollution-reducing options if they wanted to, with no accountability measures put in place by the city to ensure that pollution nuisances were addressed.

As early as summer 2023, one seasoned environmental law veteran told Fresnoland that the cookbook was one of the most blatant violations of state law they had ever seen.

However, the city hasn’t put together a fresh plan to replace the rejected 2021 version.

In the Costco case, the judge also ripped the city for another shortcut they took.

The city created what amounted to a mother-in-law’s quarters for an industrial warehouse on a side of the new Costco store, not analyzing the pollution and traffic nuisances associated with that.

The judge said the city was unjustified in shoehorning such a huge traffic-generator under the section of the planning code they ended up using.

“Basically, the city failed to follow their own zoning laws. [The mother-in-law warehouse] is not an allowed use. Only something like a mini-storage is allowed,” Brannick said.