Suit Cites Environmental Reviews

The city failed to conduct proper environmental reviews of a developer’s application to subdivide parcels of foothill land flanking her single-family home, a homeowner charged in a lawsuit filed last week in Pomona Superior Court.

Developer Everett Hughes submitted separate applications for the subdivisions: one in 1987 to create a 32-lot subdivision on 72 acres, and the other in 1989 to subdivide a 2.7-acre lot into five residential lots. The city approved both requests but scaled down the larger proposal to 26 lots.

In her suit, filed March 12, Lone Hill Avenue homeowner Diane Michelsen asked the court to order the city to rescind its decisions, and to require a new environmental impact report considering both subdivisions as a single proposal.

Michelsen’s attorney, Ronald Ballard, said the city’s approvals are invalid under the California Environmental Quality Act because the previous environmental review considered the proposals separately. No date has been set for the case, but it must be heard within 90 days, he said.

City Atty. Cheryl Kane and developer Hughes did not return phone calls seeking comment.

Michelsen is a co-founder of the slow-growth group Glendora Pride. She said she helped establish the group two years ago in response to the impending development around her home.