STOCKTON - Stockton failed to adequately address the environmental impacts of a landmark growth plan it adopted last month, east San Joaquin County residents and the Sierra Club claim in two separate lawsuits seeking to undo the plan.

At issue is the city's General Plan, a document to govern how far and wide the city grows by 2035. The Sierra Club has objected to planned residential growth north of Eight Mile Road and to the city's plan to about double its population by 2035.

"The sprawling nature of the plan's development would eliminate important open space buffers between existing urban areas, destroy the economic vitality of the city's downtown and create gridlock traffic conditions at nearly 50 roadway segments throughout the area, with attendant impacts on air quality and global climate change," the club claimed in its lawsuit.

City officials have said the plan is neither sprawl-inducing nor harmful to downtown, and they said the city adequately considered the environmental impact of planned growth. City Attorney Ren Nosky said the plan adopted Dec. 11 is legally sound, and Mayor Ed Chavez said it will allow the city to wisely manage growth.

"There's a good deal of thought that's gone into it," Chavez said.

The lawsuits, filed Thursday in San Joaquin County Superior Court, are the latest in a land-use debate that has gone on since the city first considered the General Plan in 2002. The Sierra Club had previously threatened to file a lawsuit, and the city expected it.

It did not expect, however, to be sued by the Morada Area Association, to which city officials afforded significant concessions in hearings on the General Plan by relinquishing the city's hold on part of Morada and eliminating a planned subdivision east of Highway 99. The association claims in its lawsuit that the city failed to demonstrate it has enough water to serve planned growth. Residents have said they fear development will suck water from their wells.

City officials said the city will have enough water to serve planned development and that homes will not be built if it is determined the city does not.

Morada Area Association President Richard Shaffer called that assurance "superficial" and meant only to "appease the crowd."

When the association decided to sue the city, it considered that Stockton had made some concessions to the area, Shaffer said. But water is a different issue, he said.

"All residents east of Highway 99 are on well water, and Stockton hasn't shown any inclination to analyze the effect of their developments on the water supply over here," he said.

Nosky said the city spent "considerable time and resources" to ensure that the plan is sound.

Activists in Stockton and Lodi have long called for the creation of a greenbelt between the two cities. Builders have said growth north of Eight Mile Road and elsewhere is needed to accommodate Stockton's growing population.

Contact reporter David Siders at (209) 943-8580 or dsiders@recordnet.com.

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