June 9, 2025
Today, Sierra Club, the Environmental Council of Sacramento (ECOS) and Friends of the Swainson’s Hawk (FOSH), represented by Patrick Soluri, of the firm, Soluri-Meserve, filed a lawsuit in Superior Court challenging the approved expansion of the City of Sacramento’s potential boundary in North Natomas. The 474-acre expansion requested by private landowners is intended to allow them to develop 6 million square feet of megawarehouse space on farmland next to wildlife preserves managed by the Natomas Basin Conservancy, and the Westlake Community, including the Paso Verde School.
The lawsuit challenges the project’s deficient environmental review under the California Environmental Quality Act. It also challenges the failure of the Sacramento Local Agency Formation Commission (SacLAFCo) to follow its own policies in its approval of the landowner application. The Project site is currently zoned and used for agricultural purposes. Its ongoing status as agricultural land is critical to maintain continued effectiveness of the Natomas Basin Habitat Conservation Plan (“NBHCP”), an enforceable legal agreement between City, Sutter County, and Federal and State wildlife agencies which has guided urban development in the Natomas Basin for over 25 years.
