California land trust sues to block roads across a 402-acre preserve saved from housing development

A conservation group in California has filed a lawsuit to stop plans for permanent roads and utility lines across a newly created 402-acre nature preserve. The legal action comes four years after the land was saved from housing developers. Placer Land Trust filed the lawsuit to block infrastructure construction through Clover Valley, an area of oak woodland and wetlands in Rocklin, California. The group wants to protect the valley floor, which was bought at a reduced price of $10 million in 2022 after years of local opposition to housing projects. The dispute focuses on development rights that were attached to the property before it was protected. Before the land was purchased for conservation, the 402-acre site had full city approvals for more than 500 single-family homes and a major road crossing the valley.Decades of development pressureLocated in western Placer County, Clover Valley is one of the last remaining undeveloped oak woodland areas in the city of Rocklin. For more than 20 years, local residents and environmental groups have campaigned against plans to build housing subdivisions, roads and public infrastructure across the valley floor. The site has important natural an...