Save the Mesa Settles Lawsuit (The Tribune)

Thursday August 22, 2002

Reprinted with permission from The Tribune

Save the Mesa drops lawsuit
Builder gives group $250,000 to aid environment

Stephanie Finucane
The Tribune

Nipomo -- Save the Mesa — a nonprofit group that started three years ago with just $50 in the bank — will control the purse strings of a $250,000 fund for environmental, educational and cultural projects in South County.

The money is coming from PH Property Development, the company that plans to build the big Woodlands project on the Nipomo Mesa. In exchange, Save the Mesa has dropped the lawsuit it filed over the project.

There is a caveat: Save the Mesa — which has two other lawsuits pending over unrelated land-use issues — can’t use a single dollar to fund its own work.

“The money can’t go to Save the Mesa or to any organization that’s an advocacy organization, Save the Mesa President Bill Robinson said. “PH Properties doesn’t want that money to come back and bite them.

The settlement agreement also specifies that the money can’t go to any legal or political causes.
Save the Mesa is developing guidelines for groups interested in applying for the funds.

“We have already received a lot of requests, said Robinson, who hopes to have the application process ironed out by the end of the year.

The group is especially interested in providing seed money to organizations that plan to apply for additional grants.

“Ten years from now, I’d love to be able to say that out of that $250,000, there were $5 million in projects, said Robinson.

PH Property Development has the right to review the selected projects to make sure they meet the terms of the settlement agreement.

John Janneck, spokesman for The Woodlands, declined to comment on the outcome of the case.
One of the biggest developments in county history, The Woodlands has been in the planning stage for years.

Planned for 957 acres east of Highway 1 and south of Willow Road, it will include up to 1,320 homes, two golf courses, a hotel, business park and village center with shops and offices.

Save the Mesa filed suit in February, challenging the county’s decision to allow the project to be built out within 10 years. The county’s growth management ordinance normally calls for a much slower timetable.

“It’s going to be a delightful development, but there are lots of delightful developments going on, Robinson said. “It’s reaching a level of magnitude that becomes overwhelming. It’s going to tip the scales.

But rather than face a long and expensive legal battle with an uncertain future, Save the Mesa decided to settle, Robinson said.

In addition to the $250,000 environmental fund, PH Property Development agreed to pay $75,000 in attorney fees to the Environmental Defense Center, which represented Save the Mesa.

Also, Save the Mesa will be allowed to monitor construction to make sure the developer complies with all conditions the county will place on the project — everything from hours of operation to tree removal.

“Holding the developer to the conditions was very important to Save the Mesa, said Environmental Defense Center attorney Babak Naficy. “That was a huge part of their concerns.

Save the Mesa has two other court cases pending.

One alleges the Nipomo Community Services District didn’t do enough environmental review before it approved installation of a two-mile-long water line to some homes planned behind the Santa Maria Speedway.

The group also is suing over the county’s decision to allow a Nipomo Mesa developer to reduce the size of his residential lots in exchange for donating a school site to the Lucia Mar Unified School District. Δ