Billion-Dollar Friant Ranch Development Heads to Final County Vote After Three Decades

A 1,000-acre retirement community planned for the Friant area cleared another major hurdle Thursday when the Fresno County Planning Commission voted 6-0 to recommend approval — setting up a final decision by the Board of Supervisors next month on a project that’s consumed three decades and survived a State Supreme Court reversal.

Friant Ranch, a $1.1 billion proposal to build roughly 2,500 homes for residents 55 and older along Friant Road near Millerton Lake, has been fought over in courtrooms and hearing rooms since the 1990s. Thursday’s vote sends it to supervisors for what could be a final vote on October 20.

The project started as a family cattle ranch belonging to Luanne Silkwood, whose family had worked the land for 100 years. Her nephew, former Assemblymember Frank Bigelow, took over the effort to turn it into what supporters call a legacy — a resort-style community with trails, a ballroom, an indoor lap pool, commercial space, and parks designed for 7,000 seniors.

“She said, ‘OK, do it. But make it something we can be proud of,'” recalled Brian Wagner, part of Friant Ranch’s development team, quoting Silkwood’s instructions decades ago. “We’ve tried our best over these years to make a community that will benefit Fresno County and Friant.”

Jim Moose, an attorney representing Friant Ranch, told commissioners Thursday that roughly 20 percent of his 67 years on earth have been spent litigating this one project. Half of the 30 years since planning began have been tied up in court.

The legal fight has centered on whether the county properly analyzed the project’s environmental impacts. The county first approved Friant Ranch in 2011. Environmental groups sued under the California Environmental Quality Act, and in 2018 the State Supreme Court ruled that the county’s environmental review failed to adequately explain how increases in certain air pollutants would affect human health.

That ruling sent the county back to redo portions of the environmental analysis. The revised environmental impact report recommended for approval Thursday is based on analysis dating to 2009 — when Barack Obama was president — with some underlying wildlife surveys reaching back to the mid-1990s.

On Thursday, leaders from Fresno’s Sierra Club, League of Women Voters, and Central Valley Partnership lined up against the project, arguing the environmental review remains too outdated to meet current state requirements.

They pointed to changes in the Friant area since 2011: a major blast mine has been proposed, a new state groundwater law was written, new rules for measuring traffic by miles driven were adopted, and Table Mountain Casino has grown “8 times larger” than once contemplated, according to a letter the groups sent to the county.

Fresno-area resident Radley Reep raised a specific concern about wastewater disposal that he said has not been analyzed. The plan calls for treated sewage water to be stored in ponds near the San Joaquin River. According to Reep and consultant documents reviewed by Fresnoland, that wastewater will seep into an adjacent pond owned by the San Joaquin River Conservancy.

“It has not undergone environmental assessment, which is enough for you today to say ‘please go back to the table and fix this particular problem before we recertify the [environmental review],'” Reep told commissioners.

The planning commissioners did not ask Friant Ranch’s team of lawyers any follow-up questions about Reep’s wastewater concern before voting unanimously to recommend approval.

The project includes plans for a new wastewater treatment plant intended to serve both Friant Ranch and the surrounding area.

The Breakdown

• The Fresno County Planning Commission voted 6-0 Thursday to recommend approval of Friant Ranch, a $1.1 billion proposal to build roughly 2,500 homes for residents 55 and older on 900-1,000 acres along Friant Road near Millerton Lake.
• The project includes commercial space, parks, trails, a ballroom, an indoor lap pool, and a new wastewater treatment plant — designed for roughly 7,000 seniors total.
• The county first approved the project in 2011, but the State Supreme Court overturned that approval in 2018, ruling the environmental review didn’t adequately explain air-pollution health impacts.
• The revised environmental impact report recommended Thursday is based on 2009 analysis, with some wildlife surveys dating to the mid-1990s.
• Environmental and voting-rights groups argue the review is too outdated — citing changes since 2011 including a proposed blast mine, new groundwater law, new traffic rules, and Table Mountain Casino’s expansion.
• One resident raised concerns about wastewater seeping into a conservancy-owned pond near the San Joaquin River — an impact he said hasn’t been analyzed. Commissioners did not follow up before voting.
• The Fresno County Board of Supervisors is scheduled to take a final vote on the project October 20.

What This Means for You

The Board of Supervisors you elected will decide next month whether a project that’s been fought over for three decades — one the State Supreme Court already sent back once for inadequate environmental analysis — is ready to move forward on environmental review that dates to 2009.

If supervisors approve it, the county is betting that decade-and-a-half-old analysis accounts for the area’s growth, new state laws on groundwater and traffic, and specific concerns like wastewater seepage that residents say haven’t been addressed. If they don’t, the project goes back for another round of analysis, and the families and lawyers who’ve spent decades on this keep waiting.

What You Can Do

The Fresno County Board of Supervisors is scheduled to vote on Friant Ranch on October 20 at the County Hall of Records, Room 301. Public comment is typically allowed at Board of Supervisors meetings — check the county’s meeting agenda closer to the date for timing and any participation rules.

What to Watch

The $1.1 billion figure attached to this project is a total development cost — not a statement of public spending. The material doesn’t break down what, if any, public funds or incentives the county is contributing versus private financing Friant Ranch’s developers are carrying themselves. That distinction matters when weighing what taxpayers are actually on the hook for.

Beyond the dollar figure, the deeper question is what kind of scrutiny an environmental review dating to 2009 — with some underlying surveys from the 1990s — can actually provide in 2026.

Environmental and voting-rights groups have named specific changes since 2011: a proposed blast mine, new groundwater law, new traffic rules, Table Mountain Casino’s expansion. One resident pointed to wastewater seepage into a conservancy pond as an impact he says hasn’t been analyzed at all.

The planning commissioners didn’t ask follow-up questions before voting 6-0 to recommend approval.

That raises a real tension worth naming: when does an environmental review get so outdated that it no longer serves the purpose state law requires — protecting the public from impacts a project might actually cause?

The State Supreme Court already sent this project back once in 2018 for failing to adequately explain air-pollution health impacts. If the review still has gaps, or if the area has changed enough that 2009 assumptions no longer hold, pushing it through anyway doesn’t make those impacts disappear — it just means they weren’t accounted for before shovels hit the ground.

The question for supervisors on October 20 is whether they’re confident the analysis in front of them is thorough enough, or whether the concerns raised Thursday — and the court’s earlier reversal — suggest it’s worth taking another look before locking in a decision that will shape the Friant area for generations.