County Planners OK Environmental Report on Branch Jail Project

Facing strong community opposition, the county Planning Commission on Tuesday approved an environmental impact report on expansion of the county’s branch jail near El Toro.

The commission also recommended that the Board of Supervisors consider requiring that a Sheriff’s Department weapons training range to be built at the James A. Musick facility be enclosed to cut down on noise. Noise from the planned weapons range has been one of a number of concerns voiced by area residents over the project.

“I think the commissioners are more aware of the problems we’ll be facing down there,” Susan Miller, a board member of the Serrano Park Homeowners’ Assn., said after the meeting. She said she hopes that the supervisors are as aware of the problems when they consider the expansion in late November or December.

County plans call for three inmate dormitories at the site, which would increase the possible inmate population from the current level of a little less than 1,000 to 1,535, more than are housed at the main men’s jail in downtown Santa Ana.

Training academies for the county Fire Department and the Sheriff’s Department also are planned.

As was true at the commission’s first public hearing on the environmental impact report on Sept. 10, Serrano Park residents expressed concern about community safety if Musick is expanded.

Although county officials stressed that only minimum-security inmates will be housed at Musick and that permanent buildings and new fences to replace tents and trailers will probably cut the number of escapes, protesters did not appear reassured.

A week after the first Planning Commission hearing, an escapee from Musick honor farm was shot and killed by a Laguna Beach policeman after wresting a gun from another officer who had recognized him and was trying to handcuff him, according to Laguna Beach police.

Several residents brought up the escape, the 23rd of this year from Musick, at Tuesday’s hearing.

“A 10-foot fence with razor wire doesn’t make me feel a whole lot better” about the possibility of inmate “walkaways,” said Charles Neumann, a resident of Serrano Park, which is east of Musick.

David Garfinkle, treasurer of the homeowners’ association, said more prisoners, added noise from the weapons range and noxious fumes from fires set to train firefighters will mean cumulative problems for neighbors.

“When you add up all of the . . . deleterious items . . . you’ve destroyed the quality of life in the surrounding neighborhoods,” Garfinkle said.

Under county regulations, if the Board of Supervisors approves the environmental impact report, it could bypass the Planning Commission when detailed plans for the expansion are drawn up because the site is county property.

But the commissioners unanimously voted to strongly recommend that the supervisors require that the Planning Commission have the chance to review plans to expand Musick and make recommendations to the supervisors.

The county has been under pressure to build more facilities for inmates since a federal judge in March, 1985, found the supervisors and sheriff in contempt of court for not relieving overcrowding at the men’s jail, where a weekday limit of 1,400 inmates has been imposed.

The supervisors have proposed building a 1,500-inmate jail near Anaheim Stadium, picking a remote site for a jail for up to 5,000 prisoners and have authorized expansion of Musick with temporary tents and modular units.