Orange Rejects Plan to Haul Rock, Dirt Near Homes

The Orange City Council on Tuesday night rejected a developer’s request to haul crushed rock and dirt from a construction site in east Orange for at least 14 months--a plan that was vigorously opposed by neighborhood groups.

After unanimously denying the request by the Pennhill Development Co., the City Council invited the company to find an alternative plan that would satisfy neighboring homeowners who complained that hauling 300,000 cubic yards of rock and dirt would have a serious environmental impact on their quiet, semi-rural neighborhoods.

Councilwoman Joanne Coontz said Tuesday night that whatever new plan Pennhill brings to the council, it should include an environmental impact report, which the previous plan did not have.

Quick Action

Tuesday night’s quick action came even before scores of residents were able to voice their opposition to Pennhill’s plan. Mayor Jess F. Perez said that “opposition to Pennhill” had been well documented by city officials and it was not necessary for the council to hear from the 100 residents attending the meeting.

Terri H. Sargeant, a resident of the Cowan Hill neighborhood near the site of the proposed housing tract, said the residents’ unity had been the key to the council’s rejection of the hauling plan, especially because only a month ago council members had been leaning toward approving the proposal.

“I think the council was reacting to the concern of the residents and I appreciate that,” Sargeant said. “I am thrilled.”

Robert Michelson, a consultant to Pennhill, said the company has already submitted a plan calling for increasing the size of the development from 85 to 91 homes, which would sell for about $300,000 each. He said that would eliminate the need to haul excess rock and dirt away.

Council Pressured

The council declined to consider that plan before denying Pennhill the hauling permit. Michelson said the company would have to re-evaluate its position before submitting any alternative plan to the city.

Last month, residents of the five neighborhoods surrounding the proposed tract began pressuring the City Council to reject Pennhill’s plan to haul the excess rock and dirt from the construction site. The plan had also called for installation of a rock crusher on the site, prompting residents to charge that the construction site would become a veritable quarry during the lengthy hauling period.

Officials of the Tustin-based development firm had estimated it would take 14 months or longer to haul away the materials. And that could have meant as many as 200 trucks daily traveling through the quiet, winding streets of the semi-rural neighborhoods.

In letters to all five council members, unhappy residents claimed that noise from the rock crusher would be too loud and that dust from the trucks would choke their neighborhoods. Moreover, they argued, noisy trucks would be traveling through Canyon View Avenue, a winding street that links the quiet neighborhoods to the main traffic arteries of Newport Boulevard and Chapman Avenue.

Residents further claimed that Pennhill had not disclosed details about its hauling plan to the city, nor did it have needed permits for the work. Several city officials last week said they had been unaware that Pennhill planned to haul away so much material when the company submitted its tentative housing tract last summer.

Pennhill officials, however, said they did not know there would be so much excess rock and dirt when it bought the property from another development company, M. D. Janes Co., in June.