Gravel Mine Plan Alarms Trabuco Area

The news came first in a small conservation newsletter stuffed into all the mailboxes at the Trabuco Canyon post office.

It spread at a recent meeting of the Cantobrio Ladies, a social group for women in the backcountry Rancho Santa Margarita subdivision.

The news was a proposal to operate a sand and gravel mining operation in Trabuco Creek just a few hundred feet from homes in the still-developing “urban village” nestled against Saddleback Mountain. It angered the owners of those homes, who said the mine could threaten their newfound tranquility.

If the proposed Trabuco Aggregates mine receives county, state and federal approval, these irate homeowners maintain, they will have to live with a noisy, dusty operation expected to last for 20 years.

Rock-crushing machines would work in a 40-foot-deep pit in the stream bed. Just south of the creek, where two wholesale nurseries grow oleanders and azaleas, bulldozers would carve sandstone from the bluffs. And at the northern border of the subdivision, up to 200 trucks would leave the mine each day, gears groaning as they negotiate the steep switchbacks of Trabuco Canyon Road.

And those factors--along with the potential noise, noxious fumes and negative environmental impact on the rustic canyon and surrounding area--concern attorney Eric Billings, a leader in a community effort to stop the proposed sand and gravel mine.

“The gravel pit itself would be within a mile of the brand new Rancho Santa Margarita Elementary School and one-tenth of a mile from Trabuco Elementary School,” Billings said. “I’m concerned with the traffic and the potential hazards.”

Last night, Billings and other concerned residents were scheduled to meet in a private home in Rancho Santa Margarita to discuss and organize their opposition to the mine, which is still in the early planning stages.

Trabuco Aggregates Co., a joint venture of Palomar Grading and Paving of Escondido and C.L. Pharis Sand and Gravel in Orange, filed an application with the county in January, 1986, to change the area’s zoning from general agriculture to sand and gravel extraction “to allow the development of a sand and gravel resource recovery facility and asphalt processing plant.”

The area, which has been studied by the state and county since the early 1970s, is identified in the county’s General Plan as a sand and gravel resource area. The state has also identified the area as a significant mineral deposit site.

Dan Frike, a planner for the county Environmental Management Agency, said the agency is preparing the draft environmental impact report on the proposal. The report is expected to be available for public review in mid-August.

In addition to county approval, Trabuco Aggregates Co. would be required to receive permits from the Army Corps of Engineers and the state Department of Fish and Game, Frike said.

The mining area of about 290 acres would be leased from two nurseries (T.Y. Wholesale Nursery and Sakaida Wholesale Nursery) and private property owners.

The project would entail the extraction of about 12 million tons of aggregate from the Trabuco stream channel, extending about 90 feet upstream from Trabuco Canyon Road, besides about 12 million tons underlying the nursery areas.

Preliminary studies prepared by Trabuco Aggregates, which plans to use portable mining equipment, indicated that the noise generated by the project will not exceed county noise standards, a requirement if the proposal is to receive a permit to operate. The project would also have to meet air quality standards of the South Coast Air Quality Management District.

Erwin Schatzman, a consultant for Trabuco Aggregates Co., emphasized that the proposed mine would fill a need:

“Much of the sand and gravel materials are imported into Orange County from Riverside and the Corona area. There’s a market for sand and gravel, and the project proposes to fill that market on a local basis, negating the need for long-distance travel in bringing materials in.”

Schatzman said the closest sand and gravel operation is near Irvine Lake, which serves the Orange area. “We would be serving the nearby community (Rancho Santa Margarita) to El Toro.”

The idea of an Old West sand and gravel mine, however, does not sit well with the young professionals who have just paid from $155,000 to $200,000 for three- and four-bedroom, Spanish-style homes in Rancho Santa Margarita. About 100 of them are organizing to fight the mine.

Just over the stucco garden wall of the home owned by Eric and Daren Billings, there are orange trees and oleanders and a magnificent view of Saddleback Mountain.

“We assumed there would be nothing here. That’s why we moved here, for the serenity,” said Daren Billings, 29.

But just three weeks after the Billingses moved in with their three children, they learned about the mine. Eric Billings, 26, has sent a letter to 100 homeowners in their Cantobrio tract to warn them about the mine. He has also studied an environmental statement on file with Orange County.

In his letter, Billings warned his neighbors that the proposed excavation would disturb residents with noise, vibration, dust and traffic. Among the communities that would be affected by the operation, he said, would be Rancho Santa Margarita, Robinson’s Ranch, Trabuco Highlands and the exclusive Coto de Caza area.

“Mainly we’re concerned with the fact that the canyon they want to locate this in is real rural,” he said. “The area of Rancho Santa Margarita is a large, flat valley surrounded by Saddleback Mountain and the surrounding mountains, and it’s all just country.

“It’s a community designed for life, and everybody that’s moved out here has moved to get away from the hustle and bustle of the city.”

Mike Vaughn, who moved three months ago to Rancho Santa Margarita with his wife, Debbie, shares Billings’ concern.

“I understand there’re resources down there, and builders and developers need those materials for construction projects, but there’s got to be other places where similar operations are taking place,” said Vaughn, 26, a recent law school graduate.

“My basic concern is I don’t want the dust, noise and vibration and the constant stream of trucks just invading the place,” Vaughn said. “I think it will impose a safety risk to all of us, particularly to our children.”

Beyond his personal concerns over the proposed mine, Vaughn noted that “both O’Neill Park and a national forest border on the proposed site, and I don’t think people will be using them if there’s a sand and gravel operation right next to them, notwithstanding the ecological effects it will surely have.”

Vaughn said neither he nor many of his neighbors were aware of the proposed sand and gravel operation before they moved.

Billings said Wednesday that he was expecting a representative from the Santa Margarita Co., the master developer of Rancho Santa Margarita, to attend the homeowner meeting “to explain why nobody knew about (the proposed mine) and what they can do to help us block the implementation of it.”

He said the Santa Margarita Co. provides new residents with a booklet “that tells you about the traffic patterns, soil conditions, proposed commercial areas, lakes and everything that would affect you, but they haven’t mentioned anything about this proposed sand and gravel pit.”

Joan Condino, manager of public relations for the Santa Margarita Co., said Wednesday that the company had not been invited to attend the meeting, so she was unsure whether a representative could attend.

Condino said the company did not learn about the proposed gravel operation until the middle of last April, when it received a notice from the county Environmental Management Agency.

“Our position is we are opposed to the project as it is currently being proposed,” Condino said.

She said the company sent a letter in May to the Environmental Management Agency expressing its concerns, which include the truck traffic and noise that would be generated by the mine, in addition to its potential impact on the environment and on air quality.

Condino said the company is copying the letter it sent to the county for distribution to Rancho Santa Margarita residents.

The company did not notify residents about the proposed mine earlier because “we wanted to be sure the sponsor company, Trabuco Aggregates, was serious about its proposal before we notified the residents,” she said.

“The county receives thousands of applications every year, and it would be impossible to forecast which ones would be withdrawn and which ones would be processed.”

Condino said a copy of the letter will also be sent to the Fieldstone Co., builder of the homes in the development.

“Our policy has always been to disclose information to home buyers,” she said. “We are planning to include this information in future disclosure binders.

“But, again, there is no way to tell if this project will be approved or not.”

The next step, she said, “is for the draft of the environmental impact report to be made available for public review in mid-August. We plan to review it at that time.”