Byline
OAKLEY, Calif. (AP) ― A judge has moved to block a development that would have built 4,500 homes on farmland in eastern Contra Costa County.
Ruling against the city of Oakley, Superior Court Judge Barry Baskin said the city had failed to consider alternatives for the project that would have been built on low-lying farmland near aging levees on the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta.
The decision announced Thursday was a victory for the San Francisco-based environmental group Greenbelt Alliance, which has been waging a legal battle against the project since 2006.
In its lawsuit against the city, the group claimed that Oakley officials had failed to consider the potential for levee failure or the possible contamination of drinking water from homes on the proposed tract.
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