The Building Industry Association of Southern California and four allies have made good on their promise to go to court to overturn the federal government’s designation 514,000 acres in the region as critical habitat for the threatened California gnatcatcher, including broad swaths of Los Angeles County.
The BIA, along with Forest Lawn Memorial-Park Association, the National Association of Home Builders and an Orange County group, filed a lawsuit Jan. 17 in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. that seeks to prevent the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service from enforcing its ruling.
The building industry, which fears development will be restricted or even prohibited within the designated area, is alleging that the agency failed to conduct a proper economic impact study of the rules and did not consider new scientific data indicating the small song bird is flourishing in Baja, Mexico.
The lawsuit also seeks to overturn a smaller critical habitat designation for the San Diego fairy shrimp.
“Certainly the need for housing throughout the region is at an all-time high,” said David Cordero, spokesman for the Diamond Bar-based BIA. “As critical habitat designations come down, it limits the availability of land that could be used to meet the demand of affordable housing in Southern California.”
Issued in October, the gnatcatcher designation covers nearly 58,000 acres in Los Angeles County, including land on the Palos Verdes Peninsula, the Puente-Chino Hills, the San Gabriel Mountain foothills and the Santa Clarita Valley.
Projects within the area range from a proposed expansion of Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Covina Hills to housing developments in Walnut and Santa Clarita.
A spokeswoman for the wildlife service’s Carlsbad office, which developed the rules, said she was unaware of lawsuit and could not comment.
The national nonprofit Natural Resources Defense Council forced the gnatcatcher designation, and an impending series of other critical habitat designations, after filing a lawsuit several years ago.
“We think the building industry should stop trying to block the enforcement of the Endangered Species Act and start working productively to help with the designation of critical habitat,” said defense council attorney Andrew Wetzler.
