Foothills Sentry - August 2022

Page 7 Foothills Sentry August 2022 (714) 363-3638 3908 E. Chapman Ave. Orange, CA 92869 HOURS Mon - Sat 9:30 am - 7:00 pm Sun 10:00 am - 5:00 pm Closed on Tuesday 20% Off For the first 2 times! MUST SHOW AD AT FRONT DESK & CAN’T BE COMBINE WITH ANY OFFER The Orange Emblem Club hosted a Father’s Day breakfast, June 19. Here, members of the Emblem Club and Orange Elks Lodge prepare to serve dads and their families. From left, are Orange Emblem Club Chaplain and Recording Secretary Heide Bush; John Salas; Irene Jones; Exalted Ruler Roslyn Peggins; Loyal Knight Kelly Martinez; and Jennifer Martinez. Orange residents respond to green cemetery environmental report By Tina Richards Neighbors of the proposed Ko - rnerstone “green” cemetery, slat - ed to be built on the old YMCA site behind Yorba Dog Park, are urging the city to conduct an En - vironmental Impact Report (EIR) before approving the project. Instead of doing a full-fledged EIR, the city has issued a Mitigat - ed Negative Declaration (MND), a document that is acceptable if a project’s impact is deemed “not significant” or can be “mitigated to a less than significant level.” Residents disagree that the cemetery’s impacts will be less than significant, and are scram - bling to carefully read and pro - vide comments on the 190-page MND before the deadline. In a green cemetery, bodies are not embalmed or placed in caskets, but buried about 3.5 feet deep. The Kornerstone green cemetery would consist of 3,339 gravesites, a 5,138-sq.-ft. build - ing, a 51-space parking lot, an 800-sq.-ft. storage shed, fencing and landscaping. Methane menace The property served as a solid waste disposal site until 1956, and now produces methane gas. The YMCA building housed methane monitors (all since destroyed by fire); the dog park has a monitor - ing system; and a house closest to the landfill was demolished due to methane gas encroachment. The MND acknowledges the presence of methane, but notes that it can be mitigated with in - creased monitoring. A child de - velopment center and day school and located within 200 feet of the site. That proximity, the report says, will require the property owner to adhere to a number of procedures and performance stan - dards in the “event of a discovery of unknown environmental con - cerns.” The report claims that the cem - etery will result in 36 traffic trips daily, and 83 trips on the week - end, which are not enough to cause any impacts. The MND, however, does not acknowledge the predicted 815 daily cars trips generated by a proposed senior living facility that will use the same Chapman/Yorba intersec - tion. Residents say they don’t trust the analysis. Listen up Nor do they trust the report’s noise analysis that notes that con - struction decibel levels may reach up to 81 dBA at the school prop - erty line and 71 dBAat the nearest residence. The noise, the MND says, will be intermittent and can be mitigated by limiting hours of operation, screening construction equipment, and limiting truck idling and hauling time. To avoid disturbing the con - taminated landfill soil, a 7-ft.- deep layer of clean dirt will be deposited over the site. That’s a problem, says resident John Nguyen. He calculates that the necessary 11,610 cubic yards of imported dirt would weigh some 25,542,000 pounds. Seven feet of fill placed over a single 4 ft.-by-8 ft. gravesite equals about 17,900 pounds, not including a grave - stone or concrete cap. Nguyen notes that the OC Health Department stated that the additional weight will exacerbate the ground settlement process and enhance methane gas generation. Methane migrates laterally, pro - duces 30 times the global warm - ing potential as carbon, and stays in the atmosphere for 10 years (EPA data). Sharon Galasso points out that insect activity is not mentioned at all in the MND. Her research indicates that blowflies (attracted to unembalmed corpses) lay over 250 eggs in a 24-hour period. The resulting maggots generate heat, raising the temperature by 10 degrees. That, in itself, she says, will have an impact on the micro - climate of the cemetery. The rest of the story The environmental document does not acknowledge the impact a cemetery has on property values. Real estate studies have shown that cemeteries reduce home value by an average of 12%. Ac - cording to Zillow, the aggregate value of the 120 homes impacted by Kornerstone is $115,680,000, with the average home value be - ing $974,00. A 12% decrease, neighbors calculate, is $115,680 per home or an aggregate loss of $13,881,600. The Kornerstone neighbors are asking the city for more in- depth studies on methane migra - tion, traffic circulation, noise, and compliance with General Plan guidelines. Those guidelines include expanding open space, protecting watersheds and natural resources, community safety and environmental compatibility. Ironically, the MND states that the project will have no impact on park facilities. Orange has 1.78 acres of public park space per 1,000 residents, which is less than the three acres per 1,000 en - couraged by state legislation. The 6-acre cemetery parcel, currently zoned open space/recreation, should, according to neighbors, be a park or recreational facility. That, they say, would reduce the city’s park deficit and have a sig - nificant, positive impact. Oh, no, not another learning experience! All politics is locals As of press time, two more can - didates, in addition to incumbent (appointed) Secretary Jessie Bul - lis, have publicly announced for Silverado-Modjeska Recreation and Park District Board, all plan - ning to file paperwork before the August 12 deadline. Look for profiles of others in next month’s “Canyon Beat,” assuming more step up. Ted Wright is a professor of cognitive science at UC Irvine and director of UCI's Campus - wide Honors Collegium. He’s lived in Modjeska for over nine years, appreciates the low-key community and enjoys hiking in, and photographing, the canyons. "I see the SMPRD parks and fa - cilities as the heart of our commu - nity,” says Ted, “and I favor poli - cies that will minimize obstacles for those who wish to use these resources in ways that benefit the community." Nina Macdonald is slowly retiring from running a web development company. She spends her time taking care of her garden and chickens. She has lived at the far end of Modjeska Canyon for over nine years. In news from the new 40th Congressional District, local Democratic activist Linda May reports that Dr. Asif Mahmood now has an official campaign of - fice located in Tustin on Irvine Blvd., just off Red Hill. She says Canyon Tustin Democratic clubs are “overjoyed that he is keeping it local.” Utilitarian Complaining about our elec - trical power utility is good can - yon fun, but your humble scribe learned a bunch after taking the SCE email survey gauging my awareness of power outage pro - tocols, resources and more. I could have gotten the subsidy for the purchase of a generator, and known about the Critical Care Backup Battery Program, free food and transportation, as well as discounted hotel stays. Hey now! Saturday, Aug. 16, 5 p.m. at the Community Center: Summer Concert Series features Dawgful Dead and Hempstring Orchestra in the season’s penultimate musi - cal wingding. We challenge you to guess their respective musical genres. Maple Springs has sprung Microcosm is a big word for a little world. It’s sometimes hard to reconcile the obvious, that can - yon life is a representative recon - figuration of life in the flatlands, but with trees. Until somebody starts a fire, speeds through your neighborhood, or dumps a sofa on Santiago Canyon Road. Cam - paign signs, redistricting news, and dispatches from our supervi - sor and assembly person gesture toward our local concerns, but sometimes community leaders perhaps feel like interpreters or docents, explaining things to out - siders or governmental agencies, in addition to being advocates and problem solvers. The heavily impacted Maple Springs trailhead situation offers a case study, with concerns over traffic, noise, rowdy behavior and potential fire danger expressed by residents at Mine Track, and at both the entrance and far end of the canyon … and even from deep inside the forest. See if you can guess how the problem is seen and described by three players, all attempting to de - fine and solve the problem. Let’s call them, A Concerned Resident, An Elected Official, and an Envi - ronmental Activist. One assesses the situation as follows: “We have seen a tremen - dous increase in traffic after CO - VID. Silverado Canyon Road is no longer a residential road. It’s become a highway for off-roaders to get to Santiago Peak, average speed 45-50 mph. Noises from the off-roaders is 24/7.” Another points to jurisdic - tional challenges and resources: “There is no enforcement of fire or other violations beyond the gate. Cleveland National Forest (CNF) pleads no staff, but that is just encouraging the reckless be - havior of those traveling into the forest. Not blaming local CNF staff. They don’t have real control over staffing or resources for en - forcement in the area. This needs to be addressed at a higher level by those who decided to cut staff - ing and seem oblivious to current conditions.” Finally, here’s our third contes - tant, offering a large perspective on land use and management, “Regarding proposed closure of roads during red flag conditions, while I’m all for it, forest users, in general, aren't. The fact is that U.S. forests are open 24 hours/ every day. No forests have re - stricted hours or an "entry booth," for instance. That's the territory of National Parks. Bureau of Land Management properties have even fewer restrictions than for - ests, and they look like it. Forest closures are based on two things: wet weather or fire danger/lim - ited firefighting manpower; read safety. I still believe, however, that pressure on the forest super - visor (not the ranger in Corona – Trabuco District) might be suc - cessful. Fire weather IS a weather condition. And if they can close for rain, in severe drought, they should be able to close for fire weather.” With only three other open ac - cess points to an incredibly popular recreational destination, limited parks’ law enforcement, and an understandably long re - sponse time from sheriffs, many solutions or mitigations are be - ing discussed -- your chance to play this fun game of cooperation and community politics together again.