SANTA
CRUZ - A judge's upcoming ruling puts Watsonville 's plans for development of hundreds of homes in the Buena Vista Road area in jeopardy.
Superior Court Judge Paul Burdick said today that he would rule Watsonville officials violated state aviation law when they eliminated an airport safety zone to clear the way for construction of homes, schools, nursing homes and day-care centers in the rural neighborhood.
Burdick also said his final ruling in a case pitting growth foes and airport supporters against Watsonville would say the city's analysis of the impact of growth on aviation and traffic is inadequate.
The environmental review also should have analyzed alternatives, such as whether fewer homes could be built in the area, the judge said this morning in his Santa Cruz courtroom. The city plan calls for up to 2,250 new housing units, though official say they expect the number to be less.
But Burdick backed off an earlier tentative decision that called into question whether the city needed a standalone land-use plan for the airport, in hopes that "my final decision will be one the appellate court can agree with."
Burdick will issue the final ruling March 21 in the lawsuits filed in June 2006 by the
Watsonville Pilots Association and Friends of Buena Vista, a group fighting urban growth in the rural neighborhood.
City Attorney Alan Smith couldn't say whether the decision would be appealed.
"That's a decision the (City) Council makes," he said, also declining to say what his legal advice to the group might be.
"It's pretty good news," Smith said of the ruling. "He listened to city arguments and agreed he went too far with the earlier (tentative) decision."
Smith
suggested with more study the city could proceed with its plan.
But lawyer William Parkin, representing the pilots group, said the ruling on state aviation law would crimp Watsonville 's plans.
"You can't study your way out of that," Parkin said. "There's a reason for state aviation law protecting these safety zones. The state doesn't want to give carte blanche to a city to do whatever it wants ... to threaten airport viability and put people at risk."
Burdick said he continued to agree with the city that potential impacts on water and agricultural had been adequately dealt with in the environmental
review. But his comments today indicated that, though he was persuaded by city arguments related to the standalone airport plan, he'd uphold the rest of the tentative decision he announced in December.
"We won," said Alexander Henson, the lawyer representing Friends of Buena Vista. "In this field you can always win more, but winning is winning."
