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California chalked up a victory Friday in its long battle against sprawl-induced smog.

A federal judge in Fresno upheld an ambitious regulation passed by the San Joaquin Valley air quality district in 2005, which requires developers to minimize pollution by building near public transit, adding bicycle lanes or creating walkable shopping areas. If they don’t, they must pay a fee to fund emission-reduction projects elsewhere.

The heavily agricultural San Joaquin Valley, along with the Los Angeles area, suffers from some of the dirtiest air in the nation, along with high rates of asthma and other respiratory diseases. The regulation, part of a comprehensive plan to meet federal Clean Air Act standards, was challenged by the National Assn. of Home Builders.

But U.S. District Judge Lawrence O’Neill ruled that the agency had authority to enact the regulation.

Builders reacted angrily. ‘Single-issue agencies such as the air board look for ways to grab local land use authority,’ said Jill Workman, a spokeswoman for the Building Industry Assn., Orange County. ‘This is a dangerous trend.... Additional layers of bureaucracy will exacerbate the current housing and economic crisis.’

The NAHB was assessing whether to appeal the decision, which, according to spokesman Duane Desiderio, would ‘encourage a patchwork approach’ to controlling ozone and greenhouse gas emissions.

However, environmental groups, which joined the air district in defending against the suit, applauded. ‘No special interest should have a free ride in a region where schools warn parents to keep children indoors on bad air days,’ said Paul Cort, an attorney for Earthjustice, which represented the Sierra Club and Environmental Defense Fund in the case.

According to Kathryn Phillips of the Environmental Defense Fund, hundreds of California developers have already complied with the pollution-cutting rule. ‘It’s time for the trade associations to back off,’ she said.

— Margot Roosevelt