URGENT STOP VISTA RANCH UPDATE: Public Comments to New EIR Due August 31, 2026

Important Vista Ranch Update: Public Comments Due August 31, 2026
The City of Clovis has released a revised Environmental Impact Report for the proposed Vista Ranch development. This Revised EIR replaces the prior draft, so it is important that residents submit new comments to ensure their concerns are part of the official record.

Written comments must be received by 5:00 p.m. on Monday, August 31, 2026.

Vista Ranch is not a small project. The full master plan covers approximately 507 acres and could allow up to 3,286 homes, bringing an estimated 43,801 daily vehicle trips to this area.

We are asking the City not to certify or approve this project as currently proposed. At a minimum, the EIR should be corrected and recirculated to fully address major concerns, including:

Traffic and public safety on Fowler Avenue, Perrin Avenue, Behymer Avenue, and surrounding rural roads.
The outdated collision analysis, which does not adequately account for the two tragic pedestrian fatalities at Fowler and Perrin in 2024.
Increased traffic, cut-through traffic, and the lack of safe, continuous pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure.
Potential effects on groundwater, private wells, drainage, and groundwater recharge.
Loss of rural character, open views, wildlife habitat, dark skies, and the quiet enjoyment of nearby residents.
Significant and unavoidable transportation and greenhouse-gas impacts identified in the Revised EIR.
The EIR itself identifies the No Project Alternative as environmentally superior. We are asking the City to choose the No Project Alternative or require a substantially smaller, safer redesign before moving forward.

Please take a few minutes to review the materials, submit your own comment, and share specific observations about traffic, safety, water, wells, drainage, wildlife, or how this development would affect your neighborhood. Personal comments matter and become part of the public record.

View the Revised EIR and project documents here:
View the New EIR Click Here

Submit your comment before 5:00 p.m. on August 31, 2026:
Submit your response to the assistant city planner vie email: mckenciep@clovisca.gov

Please share this update with neighbors, friends, and anyone who cares about protecting the safety, water, rural character, and future of our community.

Reach out to get more info:    SafeGrowthClovis@gmail.com

Thank you for standing with us to stop Vista Ranch as currently proposed.

The following are issues with the new EIR and the Vista Ranch project:

Issues Residents Can Address in Their Comments
The Revised Environmental Impact Report for Vista Ranch raises serious concerns that deserve a full response before the City considers approval. The Revised EIR replaces the prior draft, so residents should restate their concerns in new written comments before the deadline.

Please use the points below that are personally relevant to you. Personal observations about your neighborhood, driving routes, wells, children, safety concerns, flooding, wildlife, or quality of life are especially important.

Traffic, road safety, and neighborhood access

Vista Ranch could ultimately add up to 3,286 homes and approximately 43,801 daily vehicle trips at full buildout. Residents are concerned that Fowler, Perrin, Behymer, Shepherd, Sunnyside, and nearby rural roads are already unsafe and are not designed for this level of traffic.

These roads often lack continuous sidewalks, protected bicycle lanes, shoulders, lighting, and safe crossings. Families, children, pedestrians, cyclists, mail carriers, and trash-service vehicles must share narrow rural roads with fast-moving traffic.

The EIR’s collision analysis largely ends in 2023 and does not adequately account for the two pedestrian fatalities at Fowler and Perrin in 2024. Residents have also seen run-off-road crashes, vehicles striking power poles, dangerous speeds, and conflicts created by narrow roads during trash pickup and mail delivery.

Comments can ask the City to require a corridor-wide safety audit; update the collision record; address Fowler, Perrin, Behymer, Shepherd, and surrounding roads; and fully fund needed road, pedestrian, bicycle, intersection, and right-of-way improvements before new homes are occupied.

Cut-through traffic and privately maintained roads

Residents are concerned that traffic will spill onto neighborhood streets and privately maintained roads, including routes through and near Shenandoah Farms. The EIR should fully analyze where drivers will divert when major intersections and rural roads become congested, who will pay for resulting road damage, and how emergency access and neighborhood safety will be protected.

Water supply, groundwater recharge, and private wells

The project would create large new areas of roofs, pavement, and other impervious surfaces. Residents are concerned that rainfall that now soaks into the ground near existing homes and private wells could be diverted away from the area and into off-site basins.

The EIR contains important water-demand and recharge assumptions that need clearer explanation and verification. Residents are also concerned about the long-term condition of local groundwater, the reliability of recharge assumptions, possible effects on private wells, and whether promised solutions would be enforceable if water levels decline or wells are harmed.

Comments can request updated water analysis, well monitoring, protection of local recharge, finalized drainage plans, enforceable recharge commitments, and a funded plan for well replacement, deepening, or connection to another source if private wells are affected.

Drainage, flooding, and infrastructure

The project must show how stormwater, drainage, road runoff, and new infrastructure will function during major storms and over time. Residents should ask whether drainage improvements are fully designed, funded, and capable of protecting existing homes, roads, wells, and downstream properties before construction begins.

Wildlife, habitat, farmland, and open space

Vista Ranch would convert a large area of agricultural and open land. Residents are concerned about the loss and fragmentation of wildlife habitat, wetlands, wildlife movement corridors, and the rural landscape that supports species such as raptors, owls, foxes, coyotes, and other native wildlife.

Comments can ask for stronger habitat avoidance, buffers, wildlife-corridor protections, protection of wetlands and Big Dry Creek resources, and a complete analysis of cumulative impacts when Vista Ranch is considered together with Heritage Grove, Shepherd North, and other planned development.

Rural character, views, light, noise, and quality of life

Residents value the rural edge of Clovis, open views, dark skies, agricultural character, quiet neighborhoods, and separation between existing homes and dense development. A project of this size could bring years of construction noise, dust, air pollution, truck traffic, nighttime lighting, and a permanent loss of rural character.

Comments can request meaningful open-space buffers, rural-edge setbacks, view protections, limits on two-story homes near existing residences, dark-sky and light-spill controls, and visual simulations showing what neighbors will actually see from their homes.

Cumulative impacts and alternatives

The EIR should not look at Vista Ranch in isolation. It must fully account for the combined effects of other major development, including traffic, water demand, air pollution, greenhouse-gas emissions, schools, public safety, drainage, and loss of open space.

The EIR identifies the No Project Alternative as environmentally superior. Residents can ask the City to select the No Project Alternative or require a substantially smaller, safer project with infrastructure and environmental protections completed before new impacts occur.

closing request

I respectfully ask the City of Clovis not to certify or approve the Vista Ranch Revised EIR as currently written. The City should correct and recirculate the EIR, fully address the safety, water, drainage, ecological, and cumulative-impact concerns raised by residents, and select the No Project Alternative or require a substantially smaller and safer redesign.