Plan Commission Votes Against Corona Greenbelt Compromise

The city’s Planning Commission voted 6 to 0 Tuesday night to oppose a compromise master plan for development of South Corona’s agricultural greenbelt.

The compromise--which would reduce the total number of houses allowed in the greenbelt by 9% from the commission’s favored plan--had been hammered out last week between opposing factions of landowners and area residents.

But that compromise, commissioners said Tuesday night, would create an undesirable mixture of housing densities in the eastern half of the 4,900-acre greenbelt, and would make the whole area’s development from agricultural to residential use less economically feasible.

William Stein Jr., chairman of the commission, abstained from all discussions and votes on the master plan because he owns property in the greenbelt.

The plan, and the Planning Commission’s near-unanimous negative reaction to it, goes back to the City Council next week, possibly for a final vote.

“The council is not bound by (Tuesday night’s) decision,” said Derrill Yaeger, the attorney representing a group of about 100 landowners. “I think the council will make its own decision.”

That decision may be based, in part, on a desire to end a sometimes bitter conflict that has pitted the greenbelt’s scattered residents against landowners in a pair of competing initiative drives to regulate South Corona development.

Leaders on both sides agreed to drop their petition campaigns if the compromise plan is approved by the City Council before the July 7 deadline for putting their proposals on the November ballot. Meanwhile, the two groups are still collecting signatures.