{"id":1017882,"date":"2026-08-22T22:15:16","date_gmt":"2026-08-22T22:15:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1017882\/"},"modified":"2026-08-22T22:15:16","modified_gmt":"2026-08-22T22:15:16","slug":"city-sued-over-approval-of-emerald-hills-housing-project-over-wildfire-evacuation-concerns-nbc-7-san-diego","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1017882\/","title":{"rendered":"City sued over approval of Emerald Hills housing project over wildfire evacuation concerns \u2013 NBC 7 San Diego"},"content":{"rendered":"

A lawsuit has been filed against the City of San Diego and developer D.R. Horton challenging the approval of a roughly 120-home housing project<\/a> in Emerald Hills.<\/p>\n

The lawsuit comes after the San Diego City Council denied an appeal last month seeking to stop the project.<\/p>\n

A rally was held Saturday in Emerald Hills to announce the lawsuit and give residents and community members an opportunity to voice their concerns about the development.<\/p>\n

Kenny Key, who lives near the project, filed the lawsuit with his attorney, Paul Suppa. Key said he has been raising concerns with city leaders about the project, known as the “Radio Towers” development, for about five years.<\/p>\n

“I feel like my life has been hijacked on an issue that I never saw coming,” Key said at the rally.<\/p>\n

The lawsuit is narrowly focused on whether the city adequately considered wildfire evacuation and emergency response planning before approving the project.<\/p>\n

Suppa said he is representing Key on a pro bono basis and is asking the court to review the information that was before the City Council when it approved the project.<\/p>\n

“We are not opposed to development but we are asking the court to meaningfully consider what was before the City Council in approving the project as it stands,” Suppa said.<\/p>\n

One of the questions Suppa said he wants answered is whether emergency vehicles would be able to access the area while residents can safely evacuate in the event of a wildfire.<\/p>\n

\"<\/p>\n

Parts of the Encanto neighborhood are designated as a “Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zone” on the city’s fire hazard severity maps<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The lawsuit is not the only concern raised by community members.<\/p>\n

Erik Becerra, who lives in Encanto, said residents are also worried about traffic the development could add to the area, particularly because of its proximity to Interstate 94.<\/p>\n

Becerra said the nearby freeway entrance already experiences significant congestion during the morning commute.<\/p>\n

“People coming together, neighborhoods coming together really, really matters,” Becerra said.<\/p>\n

What is Footnote 7?<\/p>\n

Becerra also pointed to San Diego’s former “Footnote 7” zoning provision as a factor allowing the project to move forward under rules that permitted smaller residential lots.<\/p>\n

The provision allowed certain properties in neighborhoods including Encanto to be subdivided into lots as small as 5,000 square feet, rather than the 20,000-square-foot minimum that would otherwise apply.<\/p>\n

The San Diego City Council repealed Footnote 7 in 2025. However, projects that had progressed far enough through the city’s approval process before the change can continue under the previous rules.<\/p>\n

That means the Emerald Hills project can continue under the rules that applied when it entered the approval process.<\/p>\n

The lawsuit is seeking documentation showing the city adequately considered wildfire evacuation and emergency response issues.<\/p>\n

The City of San Diego is expected to be served with the lawsuit Monday.<\/p>\n

NBC 7 reached out to the City of San Diego and San Diego City Councilmember Henry Foster III, who represents the Encanto neighborhood, for comment. We did not hear back in time for publication.<\/p>\n

For now, the housing project is moving forward while the legal challenge proceeds.<\/p>\n

This story was originally reported for broadcast by NBC San Diego. AI tools helped convert the story to a digital article, and an NBC San Diego journalist edited the article for publication.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A lawsuit has been filed against the City of San Diego and developer D.R. Horton challenging the approval…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1017883,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5134],"tags":[5229,1582,276,17449,7065,3549,7724,3550,7264,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":["post-1017882","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-america","tag-ca","tag-california","tag-encanto","tag-housing","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-city-council","tag-san-diego-county","tag-sandiego","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117141473051662492","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1017882","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1017882"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1017882\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1017883"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1017882"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1017882"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1017882"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}