Plans for thousands of new homes to be built on the old Cargill Salt property in Redwood City are in jeopardy.
The Environmental Protection Agency is looking to determine if the salt pond developers want to fill-in for homes are protected under the Clean Water Act.
"The Bay Area has been standing up to say we don't want to develop on our shoreline," said Cyril Manning with Save the Bay. "We don't want to develop right on the edge of the Bay -- that's not an appropriate use of the Bay."
But that's what developers who have teamed up with the Cargill Salt Company would like to do. Developers originally proposed building 12,000 homes on the 1,400-acre site located between Facebook and Oracle.
The attorney for the project said they are disappointed the EPA waited three years to announce its taking charge just as the Army Corp of Engineers were set to announce a decision this week.
But environmentalists with Save the Bay are relieved and hope the EPA rules the land should be protected. The group wants the area to be restored.
"These are acres that are prime to be teaming with birds and endangered species," Manning said. "The idea that these are not waters of the Bay that are not protected by the Clean Water Act -- it doesn't hold water."
