{"id":127562,"date":"2026-01-10T03:01:21","date_gmt":"2026-01-10T03:01:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/127562\/"},"modified":"2026-01-10T03:01:21","modified_gmt":"2026-01-10T03:01:21","slug":"fresno-county-judge-hears-arguments-in-highway-99-lawsuit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/127562\/","title":{"rendered":"Fresno County judge hears arguments in Highway 99 lawsuit"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\tWhat’s at stake?<\/p>\n

There’s over 10 million potential truck trips Caltrans didn’t analyze for its South Fresno project.<\/p>\n

The stakes could not be higher for an area already facing some of the worst air pollution in America.<\/p>\n

A court hearing that could have a decisive impact on Valley air quality was heard Friday afternoon at the downtown Fresno County courthouse.<\/p>\n

Fresno Superior Court Judge Geoffrey Wilson heard arguments for and against the approval of a new set of Caltrans interchanges at North and American Avenues in South Fresno along Highway 99 which top scientists say will have health impacts \u201cspanning multiple counties<\/a>,\u201d to the detriment of the development<\/a> of children at Fresno County\u2019s Juvenile Detention facility.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Fresno Building Healthy Communities and Friends of Calwa filed a lawsuit against the state\u2019s transportation agency in 2023 and want the $150 million project blocked because of Caltrans\u2019 failure to analyze the health impacts of their project on the children at the County detention facility, which is roughly 100 yards away.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt would be impossible for a building to be closer,\u201d said Thomas Peterson, a law clinic lawyer at Yale Law School, who is representing the community groups, referring to the distance between the kids\u2019 holding cells and the highway project.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just right there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Caltrans said<\/a> in its 2023 final environmental review that because the kids didn\u2019t live literally on the highway, they didn\u2019t need to analyze the health impacts of the truck pollution from their new project. Emissions near the facility are estimated by Caltrans to increase by 200%.<\/p>\n

Caltrans\u2019 lawyers framed the interchanges as a boost to safety \u2013 and not related to increasing truck traffic.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are existing facilities that are out there right now. We are just replacing existing facilities,\u201d said Caltrans lawyer Robert Gini. \u201cThis is not a major expansion project.\u201d<\/p>\n

Judge Wilson questioned why Caltrans chose to not analyze the health impacts on the incarcerated kids.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cHow did you miss the JJC [Juvenile Justice Center]? It\u2019s one of the largest structures in that area,\u201d Wilson asked.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Caltrans\u2019 attorneys said they looked up to the facility\u2019s front desk. Citing a noise study saying the truck traffic could not be heard from beyond that area, they concluded the kids wouldn\u2019t be impacted.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not something that Caltrans hid or anything,\u201d said Gini. \u201cIt was based on Caltrans\u2019 visit there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yale\u2019s legal team said the overall analysis was unacceptable.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese communities were systematically erased and ignored in Caltrans\u2019 environmental impact report \u2013 for an area already facing the highest levels of pollution in the state,\u201d said Yale law school lawyer Maria Michalos.<\/p>\n

Caltrans under fire for helping with 3,000-acre industrial park<\/p>\n

The other major problem that emerged for Caltrans was their decision to meet with Fresno County planners in late 2021, who were designing a 3,000-acre industrial park. The project is estimated to cause over 10 million new truck trips a year and needs Caltrans\u2019 projects to be viable, according to previous reporting<\/a> by Fresnoland.<\/p>\n

The Yale legal team said Caltrans\u2019 interchange was \u201cco-designed\u201d with the industrial park planners \u2013 and, because of that, the traffic should have been analyzed as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cCaltrans considered the industrial park certain enough to determine the interchange project\u2019s scale and design,\u201d said Michalos. \u201cThat requires it to be evaluated in an EIR.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the hearing, Caltrans said they didn\u2019t analyze the industrial park because they didn\u2019t have the computer know-how to factor in the 3,000-acre rezone.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t have the ability to make land use model changes,\u201d said Caltrans\u2019 Gini.<\/p>\n

The Yale legal team argued that before they chose to approve the project, Caltrans should have done everything in their power to analyze the impacts of their project. Instead, they argued, the state agency \u201cchose convenience over diligence.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe EIR is riddled with defects, not in one place, not in two, but throughout,\u201d said Yale\u2019s Michalos. \u201cThese are not harmless or innocent errors, but they represent a clear pattern on the part of Caltrans to shortcut its responsibility under the law.\u201d<\/p>\n

The judge has 90 days to issue a ruling.<\/p>\n

\n\tRelated<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"What’s at stake? There’s over 10 million potential truck trips Caltrans didn’t analyze for its South Fresno project.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":127563,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[112,114,113],"class_list":{"0":"post-127562","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fresno","8":"tag-fresno","9":"tag-fresno-headlines","10":"tag-fresno-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127562","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=127562"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127562\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/127563"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=127562"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=127562"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=127562"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}