Developer Scales Down Proposal for Portola Hills

The developer of the Portola Hills housing tract in the county’s southeastern canyon country has cut the number of proposed units by one-third after meeting strong opposition from county planners and nearby residents, officials said Thursday.

The new request by the developer, the Baldwin Co., seeks an amendment to the county’s general plan allowing construction of 2,493 units, rather than the 3,556 requested earlier this year.

The Irvine-based company received approval in 1983 to build 1,481 units on the former Glenn Ranch west of El Toro Road and south of Santiago Canyon Road in an unincorporated area of the county.

Gregory T. Smith, executive vice president of the Baldwin Co., said in a letter to the county Environmental Management Agency that the new plan was designed to meet concerns about the development’s impact on traffic, population density, the amount of open space and the compatibility of the proposal with the community.

“We believe that this revised proposal will strike the appropriate balance for the community,” Smith said in the letter.

Ray Chandos, secretary-treasurer of the Rural Canyon Conservation Fund, said that his group has not seen the revised proposal yet and that he could not comment on it.

Concern About Traffic

He said his group, which has members in Trabuco, Modjeska and Silverado canyons, was concerned about increased traffic that development would bring, and about grading and other “land-form alteration” needed to make the territory suitable for building.

“We look right across at the development, and they basically chop the tops off hills over there,” Chandos said. “So I want to look carefully at grading plans and see if it gets any worse or better.”

Earlier this year, Chandos’ group picketed at the development, where the company is building the 1,481 units for which it received permission in 1983.

The county Planning Commission held public hearings in April and May on the Portola Hills development and two others nearby. The William Lyon Co. of Newport Beach sought authorization to increase the number of homes it can build on the Robinson Ranch from 882 to 1,850, and Newport Beach realtor Jack Mullan sought an increase in allowed units on his Santiago Ranch development from 162 to 500.

On May 6 the commission voted 3 to 2 to reject the Lyon Co. request. It postponed final hearings on Portola Hills and Santiago Ranch, which are now set for Oct. 7 and 21 and Nov. 4. The Board of Supervisors is scheduled to make the final decision on the requests in December.

Revised Plans

Smith’s letter said the reduction in units on the 1,006-acre site will reduce the traffic the project is expected to generate. He also said 300 acres of open space and a regional park will be dedicated to the county, with another 200 acres being left as open space and maintained by the homeowner association.

A revised plan for grading the land before development also will be implemented, “thereby reducing the grading and maintaining the hillside community character,” Smith wrote.

When the original requests for increases were made, an EMA report said the projects “would generate substantial adverse environmental impacts without compensating public benefits. . . .”