Change Lies Ahead on Rural Road : Plan to Develop Wider Corridor Threatens Hill Dwellers’ Oasis

Up on Skyline Drive in La Habra Heights, where red-tailed hawks soar and cattle graze on the rounded ridges to the east, there is little hint of bulldozers coming.

But in the minds of many who long ago sought out this patch of peace and quiet in the Puente Hills, they are on the way.

Maybe not next year, or the year after, and certainly not until all the permits have been signed. But the dozers are coming, and their blades will reshape the grassy slopes that have buffered the hill people from the urban sprawl they fled.

A major Southern California developer, Walnut-based Shea Homes, has an option from Shell Oil Co. to buy 572 acres above Rowland Heights and next to La Habra Heights. The company wants to build a shopping center and 744 homes, many of them densely clustered along the ridge line east of Fullerton Road in county territory. It is a major development, and if the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors ultimately approves the project, it may usher in a new era of hillside development in a region where horses and one-acre lots are a way of life.

Anger on Both Sides

Residents on both sides of the hills are upset. They warn that the density and layout of the development threaten the very thing that lured them to this rural oasis: the promise of plenty of elbow room. They fear it will bring more traffic, noise and pollution to an area already struggling against outside pressures to maintain its country character.

“This definitely could become a threat to our life style,” warned Sandy Grinkey, who moved to unincorporated Rowland Heights 16 years ago and lives on an acre of land not far from the Shea Homes site. If the project goes through, she predicted, the entire ridge line from Fullerton Road east to Diamond Bar will become fair game for developers. “It will send a clear signal that it is OK to put little houses all over the hills,” Grinkey said.

At least one other home builder, Lusk Homes, has approached the county about developing 270 acres it owns just east of the Shea Homes project.

Wildlife biologists also warn that development endangers migration routes of deer and other animals. Moreover, they say, it will threaten several dense and extensive stands of California walnut trees, once plentiful but increasingly rare in the region.

The Shea Homes site is classified by the county as a Significant Ecological Area, a designation that provides some protection for hillsides and canyons by making it more difficult for the land to be developed. Developers must demonstrate an overriding need to build on the property before the county gives its go-ahead.

‘Losing Something Special’

“Profit is not a good enough reason,” said Sherry Teresa, a biologist with the state Department of Fish and Game. “We are losing something special if we allow this development to go in as proposed. It is a place where people can hike and find some solitude.”

(Spokesmen for Shea Homes did not return repeated calls for comment on the project.)

But for all the local concern, the project has an attractive trade-off for county officials, one that may prove too good to pass up. For several years now, the county, and in particular Supervisor Peter F. Schabarum, whose 1st District includes Rowland Heights and the surrounding foothills, has wanted to widen and realign Fullerton Road.

It is one of several two-lane roads that twist through the hills from north to south. And like the others, Fullerton Road is congested, dangerously so at rush hour as motorists seek alternatives to clogged freeways. But the county has been unwilling or unable to finance the widening and realignment of this country corridor. It is a $3-million to $5-million grading and paving job, one that most traffic experts agree would ease congestion on Fullerton as well as other key arteries through the hills such as Hacienda Boulevard and Colima Road.

One of Schabarum’s top aides, Ray Andersen, said the supervisor has been “very interested in widening that road for a long time . . . but the county cannot afford it in its current budget.”

Tract Map Proposal

The solution may rest with Shea Homes, which has residential projects under way in Walnut, southern Orange County and in another corner of Rowland Heights on Sunrise Drive. As part of its proposed tract map for the Shell property, the company shows a realigned Fullerton Road arcing through its development about half a mile east of the current road. It would be much more direct across the hills, and probably four lanes wide. The new road would turn south at Rowland Heights Water Co.’s big storage tanks and eventually rejoin old Fullerton Road near Whitehill Drive, not far from Whittier Boulevard and the Orange County line.

Shea Homes has said it will pay for the realignment and possibly the widening of Fullerton Road within the development. How the realignment work in county territory on the La Habra Heights side of the hill would be financed is uncertain. County planner John Huttinger said there has been talk that Shea Homes and the county would share the cost.

“Fullerton Road is an integral part of the circulation system for that region and we would love to have the developer pay for it,” Huttinger said. “This is a golden opportunity to correct a real headache.”

Congestion on Fullerton Road did not happen overnight. It has been building since the late 1970s as commercial and residential construction boomed in the San Gabriel Valley and portions of southeast Los Angeles County and north Orange County. At first, the region’s two major north-south routes--the San Gabriel River Freeway (Interstate 605) on the west and the Orange Freeway (California 57) on the east--easily absorbed the stream of new motorists moving between homes and job centers in cities like Industry, Santa Fe Springs and Fullerton. But as the freeways plugged up, impatient motorists sought faster routes over the Puente Hills. Fullerton Road, Hacienda Boulevard and Colima Road quickly became heavily traveled options.

Colima Considered Safest

Colima has four lanes and is considered by police the safest of the three roads. But Hacienda and Fullerton are narrow, winding rural roads that are now carrying thousands of commuters daily. The speed limit on some curves drops to 20 m.p.h., and along many stretches there are no shoulders for emergency stops. On rainy days most motorists never get out of second gear as they chug up the grades.

“During rush hour, traffic enforcement is almost impossible on those roads,” said Sheriff’s Deputy Scott Coleman, who coordinates law enforcement for La Habra Heights. “The line of cars is so steady it’s not safe for me to pull out and stop someone.” And when it rains, Coleman said, “it’s nuts out there. . . . We probably don’t hear about a 10th of the accidents--people bouncing off guardrails and trees. And that doesn’t even account for all the near misses.”

According to county road records, an average of 21,000 motorists travel Hacienda every day, while roughly 12,000 use Fullerton, the more difficult drive of the two roads. Traffic is up 11% on Hacienda and nearly 13% on Fullerton Road since September, 1983. During the same period, there have been 53 accidents on Hacienda and 54 on Fullerton Road. While nobody has been killed, 70 people have been injured.

“It is fair to say that those roads are nearing capacity,” said Barry Dee, a traffic specialist with Willdan Associates, an engineering consultant for the city of La Habra Heights.

Fastest Route Sought

Despite the risks, “motorists seek the fastest, most convenient routes,” said Nick Jones, a state Department of Transportation traffic engineer. “They want the feeling that they are moving, even if it’s 15 m.p.h. up a steep hill. They feel like they are getting somewhere. . . . But I’ll be honest, I wouldn’t drive Hacienda or Fullerton every day. No sir.”

To improve traffic flow, the La Habra Heights City Council banned all heavy truck traffic on Fullerton Road several years ago. Many of the trucks that started up the hill could not make it around the sharp curves or took so long that the traffic backup made the six-mile drive from Whittier Boulevard over the hill to Rowland Heights a 45-minute patience-tester. While the truck ban eased congestion on Fullerton Road, it compounded problems on Hacienda Boulevard several miles to the west. Trucks are allowed on Hacienda, and people who live along the roadway say windows and dishes rattle and furniture moves when the big rigs downshift.

“All night long we hear the air brakes going up and down,” Hacienda Boulevard resident Everett Olson said. “Sometimes you think those trucks are coming right through the front door.”

Proponents of the Shea Homes development believe it would go a long way toward solving the traffic crunch. A wider, realigned Fullerton Road could easily handle truck traffic and it would be much quicker for commuters crossing the hills.

La Habra Heights Mayor Charles Wolfarth said the development is like a double-edged sword. He opposes the density of the development, but he welcomes the relief it promises for Fullerton Road. “We’ve waited a long time to get some help for that road,” he said. “Maybe this is the answer.”

Political Trade-Off Seen

But many Rowland Heights residents who border the Shea project are angry at what they see as a political trade-off at their expense. They contend that the county officials desperately want Fullerton Road realigned, and to get it they are willing to approve a development that runs counter to the community’s wishes.

In 1981, after months of meetings with residents, the county adopted a master plan for Rowland Heights. It calls for one- to five-acre lots in the area Shea Homes wants to develop. Two weeks ago, the county Regional Planning Commission recommended that the county General Plan be amended to allow higher density there, and longtime residents, like Dean Anderson believe that the commission will next recommend a similar change in the Rowland Heights master plan. The reason: the Fullerton Road realignment.

“The county wants that road so bad they can taste it,” said Anderson, who helped draft the community plan and is now a member of the Rowland Heights Coordinating Council. He bought an acre in the Native Farms area of Rowland Heights in 1955 so he and his wife could raise English bulldogs for show “without disturbing my neighbors. . . . I’ve looked up at those hills for nearly 30 years. Now they want to chop them up.”

One of Anderson’s neighbors, Orris Abbott, said he moved to Rowland Heights in the mid-1960s to escape the fast pace of his advertising job. He has six acres, a barn and a yard full of farm animals. If the Shea development gets the go-ahead, the main east-west road in the project will run right behind his house. “We’d look up at a 35-foot berm rather than these hills,” he said. “I’m not against the road, or the development. Just the size of the development. . . . If I wanted to live in the city I would have moved to Westwood. I never thought this would happen here. But I guess the Indians said that same thing.”

Grinkey, another Native Farms resident, added, “I don’t think (the county) should sacrifice Rowland Heights for a road.”

Development Scaled Back

When Shea Homes originally approached the county several years ago, it wanted to build 1,500 homes, Huttinger said. But Shea has scaled back the size of the development several times in recent months in an apparent response to concerns of residents and some county officials. Lee Strong, one of five members on the Regional Planning Commission, said Shea Homes has gone about as far as it can to reduce the size of the development and still make money.

“The economics of the project are such that there have to be more houses than currently allowed to help the developer pay for the road improvements,” said Strong, a former Whittier city councilman who was appointed to the commission earlier this year. Under zoning for the area, only 572 homes--one per acre--would be allowed on the site, thus the need for a change in the county General Plan which has been recommended by the county Planning Commission.

Earlier this month, Shea proposed building a 15-acre shopping center in place of 200 houses across from the Rowland Heights Water Co. But some residents contend that the center would struggle financially because the Puente Hills Mall, a regional shopping center, is only a mile away on Colima Road. And if the Shea center did do well, others fear it would generate even more traffic and congestion.

Residents in Rowland Heights in recent months have mobilized, filling the chambers of several Regional Planning Commission meetings and sending petitions and letters to Schabarum and other county officials. Many of the objections center on the density of homes planned for the hilltops.

Rather than spread the development over the entire acreage, Huttinger said, Shea has decided to cluster the buildings at the base of the hills on the southern edge of Rowland Heights or on the ridge line where grading of lots will be easier and, presumably, more attractive to buyers, who on a clear day could see Santa Catalina Island to the west and Pasadena to the north.

Specifics of the type and price of homes in the development have not been determined, although planning documents show the homes ranging from 1,250 square feet to 4,000 square feet for some along the ridge line.

‘Steep Terrain’

By clustering the homes, Huttinger said, several hundred acres in the center of the property will remain undisturbed. But Fish and Game biologist Teresa said the approach is misleading because some of the most desirable land is targeted for houses. “The land they are not going to develop is steep terrain,” she said, “while the land proposed for development is some of the best in terms of wildlife and viewscape.”

If the development wins approval, Mayor Wolfarth in neighboring La Habra Heights believes that may put pressure on his city to rethink its one-acre lot requirement. The city incorporated in 1978 over the one-acre issue after developers began to pressure the county to allow higher densities. “If this goes through,” he said, “it will put more pressure on us and future councils to change our development approach.”

Councilwoman Jean Good said all of this could have been avoided if Rowland Heights had incorporated in the late 1970s. “It is a real tragedy,” she said, “that they never did form a city to protect itself.” As a result of the Shea proposal, she said, there is now talk of La Habra Heights annexing some or all of Rowland Heights. But Good doubts that could be accomplished, even if La Habra Heights favored such a move, in time to significantly influence the development.

Not all of the hill people are opposed to the development. Take Bob Diaz, who owns 25 acres at the end of Skyline Drive. His hilltop acreage, purchased by his father in 1929, would overlook the Shea project to the east and the new Fullerton Road would cut just east of his parcel. He thinks it is a perfect location for attracting buyers to his property when he subdivides into 19 lots.

With a spectacular view, the land will not be cheap and the houses, he figures, will be big and expensive. “If anything, it will bring exposure to my land,” he said. “Change is coming and I might as well take advantage of it.”