Scheiber Ranch Properties v. City of Lincoln CA3

BACKGROUND

Scheiber’s first amended complaint alleged the following: Scheiber Ranch Properties, LP owned and operated about 325 acres of agricultural land in Placer County, west of Lincoln. Albert Scheiber was a partner of Scheiber Ranch Properties, LP. There were three wells on the property, above the Sacramento Valley Groundwater Basin, North American Sub-basin (Basin). Groundwater levels in the Basin in the areas near the Scheiber property were in decline. Lincoln relied more heavily on groundwater resources from the Basin via existing wells during times of drought. Lincoln approved large development projects that contemplated the construction of several thousand new homes in an area west of Lincoln over the next decade. It also approved plans to construct at least six new wells to pump groundwater from the Basin to supply water to the development projects. Scheiber believed Lincoln would construct new wells within the next one to two years or sooner and Lincoln planned to approve additional wells within the next two to five years. Scheiber was informed and believed that at least three of the new Lincoln wells would be located within a mile of the Scheiber property and wells.…