A pending court ruling about South Boundary Road has huge implications.

The future of South Boundary Road in Del Rey Oaks is an open question, and right now, just one person has the answer: Monterey County Superior Court Judge Marla Anderson.

In a daylong hearing Feb. 11, Anderson heard arguments in a case activist group Keep Fort Ord Wild brought in 2017 against the Fort Ord Reuse Authority for allegedly violating state environmental law in its approval of improvements to South Boundary, as well as to Gigling Road in Seaside.

South Boundary’s fate may sound trivial – the project calls for widening the road for 1.44 miles and realigning the intersection with Gen. Jim Moore Boulevard – but it’s critical to development of Fort Ord lands in Del Rey Oaks and Monterey. That’s because utilities to serve the properties – water, electricity, gas and sewers – are envisioned to be installed underground concurrent to the road’s reconstruction.

In one sense, KFOW’s case is predicated on a straightforward contention: That FORA approved the roadway improvements in 2017 when it awarded engineering contracts for the projects, and not in 2010, when the FORA board approved the environmental review of the projects. FORA’s attorneys argue the latter is true, and if Anderson agrees, it’s an open-shut case: The statute of limitations for the lawsuit would have expired.

In every other respect, however, the case is complex and gets into nuances of the California Environmental Quality Act.

One intriguing aspect of the case is a native plant reserve located northeast of the intersection of Gen. Jim Moore and South Boundary, and is stipulated to be a minimum of two acres. FORA set aside the land in 1999, in perpetuity, as a mitigation for its project to rebuild the intersection of Highway 218 and Gen. Jim Moore, then known as North-South Road.

That mitigation came after negotiations between FORA and the California Native Plant Society, and according to KFOW attorney Molly Erickson, FORA’s envisioned realignment of the intersection of South Boundary and Gen. Jim Moore goes right through the reserve.

In the court hearing, Anderson suggested that perhaps the reserve could be relocated.

“My understanding is that the Native Plant Society is in the driver’s seat,” Anderson said.

If Anderson rules in KFOW’s favor, FORA – which is slated to sunset in June 2020 – would have to go back to the drawing board with its environmental review of the projects, which may mean preparing environmental impact reports, a time-consuming and costly process.