Page 7 Foothills Sentry AUGUST 2025 Reading and Writing Tutoring Free through the Orange Public Library (Ages18+) Explore career-ready programs, apprenticeships andtransfer pathways. SCC is the #1-ranked community college in Orange County. Secure your spot today! Start your journey this fall at SCC! Apply Online: sccollege.edu/apply Registration is Open Classes Begin August 18 ENROLL FOR 2025 FALL SEMESTER AT SCC County supervisors OK fire-exposed Trabuco housing tract By Ray Chandos Disregarding public protests, the Orange County Board of Supervisors, June 24, approved the subdivision of 222 scenic acres for 181 houses along El Toro Road near Cook’s Corner, adjoining O’Neill Regional Park. The “final tract map” for Saddleback Meadows supplants a 2022 “tentative tract map” and allows the lots to be recorded and developed. Supervisors Don Wagner, Janet Nguyen, Katrina Foley and Doug Chaffee voted in favor. Supervisor Vicente Sarmiento abstained. The vote marked the latest chapter in the notorious 47-year history of a project tainted by lawsuits, bankruptcy, criminal investigations, and a sewer moratorium that saved the original 1980 subdivision map from expiring. The current incarnation originated in 2002, when county supervisors approved 283 units and an Environmental Impact Report (EIR) in response to litigation against the county and the developer California Quartet by environmental groups and the Vedanta Society, owner of the neighboring Ramakrishna Monastery. The parties entered into lengthy, secretive settlement discussions and arbitration, from which the 181-unit proposal emerged in October 2023. Skip this step Saddleback Meadows lies within the Foothill-Trabuco Specific Plan (FTSP) area, subject to land use regulations enacted by county supervisors in 1991 to “preserve the rural character of the area and provide a buffer between urban development and the Cleveland National Forest.” The FTSP Review Board is charged with reviewing all development plans at public meetings before the county acts. But the county skipped this required step. In 2022, Director of Development Services Justin Kirk approved the Saddleback Meadows tentative tract map “administratively,” without any public notice or hearing. When planner Kevin Canning appeared before the Review Board over one year later, seeking review of a use permit for Saddleback Meadows, he told the packed audience that the map was a “done deal,” that only details like building setbacks and heights remained to be approved. This maneuver effectively locked the public out of the established review process. Supervisors based their approval on the 2002 EIR and two subsequent “addendums”—one in 2004 and another in 2022. Under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), an addendum may be used if “only minor technical changes” have occurred in the project or its surrounding environment. Unlike an updated EIR, however, an addendum does not require public notice and review, making it a favorite tool of developers and local governments with contentious projects like Saddleback Meadows. Public process ignored The two EIR addendums also received backroom approvals. In a 2023 letter to Canning requesting the use permit, developer agent Michael Recupero cited the 2022 addendum stating: “The project remains CEQA compliant.” Besides promoting Saddleback Meadows, Recupero also serves, since 2004, on the county’s “Development Processing Review Committee (DPRC),” charged with “review of procedures and codes related to the planning and development process for private development projects.” Thirteen public speakers and 60 letters urged supervisors not to approve the proposed map, raising a variety of issues. With the public hearing delayed for 90 minutes while supervisors made presentations, Chairman Chaffee abruptly announced that speakers would be limited to one minute, instead of the three minutes usually allotted. After Chaffee rushed all the public speakers through their presentations, he allowed the developer’s attorney to speak without limit. Trabuco Canyon resident Gloria Sefton of the Saddleback Canyons Conservancy (SCC) told supervisors that the law firm Shute, Mihaly & Weinberger had submitted a letter on SCC’s behalf detailing many deficiencies in the 23-year-old EIR and addendums, including failure to evaluate wildfire evacuation, increased risk of wildfire ignition, impacts to mountain lions and other species, and violation of greenhouse gas emissions standards. Fire and water The letter also cited the 11thhour addition of a water tank at an unknown offsite location, whose impacts were never considered. “The water district doesn’t even know where the [million-gallon] water tank is going to go. They couldn’t put it on the site because the geology is so bad that it wouldn’t hold the water tank,” said Trabuco Canyon resident Bruce Conn. Saddleback Meadows lies within a Cal Fire-designated “Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zone.” Residents of Hidden Ridge, which borders Saddleback Meadows and lies directly downwind of it during Santa Ana windstorms, warned supervisors against building the project. “There is only one way in and one way out of our community,” said Dan Harris, referring to twolane Valley Vista Way, which would be shared by Saddleback Meadows evacuees during an emergency. “These new homes would impact our egress and also the first responders,” Harris said. No clean exit “We have had the sheriff’s department knock on our doors three times in three decades asking us to immediately evacuate,” said Cindy Goss. “In that time, we have observed lack of access and tremendous lines of traffic getting out of our community to get away from our homes safely.” “Fire insurance is a problem for our areas in California,” said Portola Hills resident Karl Mahl. “This project will continue to exacerbate that situation.” After closing the rushed hearing, supervisors convinced themselves with help from Deputy County Counsel Nicole Walsh, that they were legally bound to approve the final map as a ministerial act, despite all the concerns raised by the citizens they are supposed to represent. “Where we are is ministerial,” said Supervisor Wagner, whose district includes Saddleback Meadows, adding “where we are is with our hands tied.” Referring to the remaining use permit approval, Wagner said he was “comforted somewhat that there are additional steps in the process,” allowing the public to be heard, yet declined public pleas to defer approval until after the Planning Commission hearing of the use permit. Supervisor Sarmiento, who abstained, cited the development’s environmental impacts and added, “I don’t believe that I can confirm that there’s been a robust public process.” The proposed Saddleback Meadows development will overrun the rolling hills at the mouth of Trabuco Canyon. The Airport Fire of 2024 burned the area where houses are now slated to be built.
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