Judge Lets Development Groups Enter Legal Fight Over Gnatcatcher

A judge will allow the Building Industry Assn. of Southern California and Orange County’s toll road agency to enter a legal battle against environmentalists who want to force the state to place the gnatcatcher on its list of endangered species.

Sacramento Superior Court Judge Richard Park ruled Wednesday that these organizations have sufficient self-interest to intervene on behalf of the state in a lawsuit that the Natural Resources Defense Council has filed against the California Fish and Game Commission.

The council is seeking to force the commission to reverse its decision last summer that the tiny songbird does not qualify for the state endangered species list.

In its request to enter the lawsuit in support of the state, the BIA argued that if the gnatcatcher is accorded state protection it could have a substantial impact on the construction industry by reducing the affordability of housing and the development potential of about 250,000 acres of land that the gnatcatcher may inhabit in Orange, San Diego and Riverside counties.

The Transportation Corridor Agencies argued in court that the Natural Resources Defense Council is using the gnatcatcher issue in an effort to kill plans for the Foothill and San Joaquin transportation corridors, which are designed to serve the growth of south Orange County.