Dennis Bacopulos, a developer proposing the 2,500 home Friant Ranch development in the foothills just south of the town of Friant, points out the development on a map during a tour of the area on Thursday, September 13, 2012, in Friant, Calif. Fresno Bee Staff Photo
A long-embattled project to design a 9,000-resident community south of Millerton Lake cleared a hurdle this week that will bring it back before the Fresno County Board of Supervisors.
The Friant Ranch project’s backers envisioned 2,500 homes and about 250,000 square feet of commercial space in the foothills north of Fresno. The homes have been planned mostly for seniors.
But litigation had tied up the once-approved project after the Fifth District Court of Appeal upheld the state Supreme Court’s ruling the project would lead to too much air pollution. Fresno County supervisors in 2021 voted to rescind their approval from a decade earlier.
A new 2023 environmental impact report on the project, however, says new “analytical methodology,” as well as “improved pollution control technologies in vehicular and non-vehicular sources” show, “ultimately, the project would not result in a substantial adverse effect on human beings,” according to the county’s staff report.
The county’s Planning Commission unanimously voted Wednesday to support the project, sending it to the Board of Supervisors for a final vote in October.
Friant Ranch history
Shortly after the Fresno County Board of Supervisors approved the Friant Ranch project in 2011, several groups including the Sierra Club, League of Women Voters of Fresno and Revive the San Joaquin sued the county and the developer under the state’s environmental law. They argued the environmental analysis that the county used to justify its approval was flawed.
The county and the developer won a temporary victory in Fresno County Superior Court before the appellate court in May 2014 ordered a revised environmental impact report. The justices found the original report described vague and unenforceable mitigation measures around air pollution from the newly proposed traffic.
The report from the previously approved Friant Ranch development estimated from seven to 10 times the levels of nitrogen oxides and fine dust emissions than what are considered significant by the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District, according to The Fresno Bee archives.
Friant Ranch is being pursued by the Bigelow-Silkwood family about 10 miles north of Fresno. The plan has been compared to large retirement communities in Arizona and Southern California.
Dennis Bacopulos, a developer proposing the 2,500 home Friant Ranch development in the foothills just south of the town of Friant, points out the development on a map during a tour of the area on Thursday, September 13, 2012, in Friant, Calif. Fresno Bee Staff Photo 
Dennis Bacopulos, a developer proposing the 2,500-home Friant Ranch development in the foothills just south of the town of Friant, holds an artist’s rendering in this 2012 file photo as he stands at the entrance of Lost Lake Park and points out how the development will appear in the hills across Friant Road. Fresno Bee file
This story was originally published September 18, 2026 at 5:18 PM.
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Reporter Thaddeus Miller has covered cities in the central San Joaquin Valley since 2010, writing about everything from breaking news to government and police accountability. A native of Fresno, he joined The Fresno Bee in 2019 after time in Merced and Los Banos.