Planners OK Rezoning of Foothill Ranch : Shopping Center, Offices, Industry Planned on 7.2 Million Square Feet

Just five weeks after county supervisors signed the Foothill Ranch development agreement, the Orange County Planning Commission voted Tuesday to grant an amendment that would permit the rezoning of an area nearly twice the size of South Coast Plaza for industrial and commercial use.

The 4 million square feet of rezoned property near El Toro and Coto de Caza, plus 3.2 million square feet already zoned for commercial-industrial use, would contain a regional shopping center, office buildings and light industry that planners hope will attract employers to the south county and keep residents from heading north to shop.

In exchange for the amended agreement, which commissioners approved, 5-0, the Laguna Hills-based Hon Development Co. would provide $3.1 million to the county for such things as improving parks and paying for a wildlife management habitat. Under the proposal, the company would also provide 137 low-income housing units and 40 three-bedroom apartments.

The amendment must be ratified by the Board of Supervisors, which is tentatively scheduled to consider the plan April 13.

“We want this as much as the developer,” said Peter Hersh, a senior planner for the county’s Environmental Management Agency. “It’s important to build up the employment base in the south county.”

The trial construction of three-bedroom units, planners hope, would attract more families to the area. If the plan succeeds, more three-bedroom units could be built, Hersh said.

The proposed amendment would increase the amount of intensely developed land in the project to more than 7 million square feet, he said. By comparison, South Coast Plaza, including all of its grounds and retail space, is 2.1 million square feet.

Hersh said the Hon company requested the changes several months ago. The original agreement, approved by the supervisors Feb. 20, did not contain it, he said, because the agreement had to be approved quickly so Hon could capitalize on a favorable bond market.

The Hon company hopes to raise the $40 million it needs for road improvements it pledged under the original plan by buying commercial bonds at a relatively low rate and selling them at a higher rate, Hersh said.

The Foothill Ranch agreement is the second largest of eight such developer agreements approved in recent months by the supervisors. Foothill Ranch was previously known as the Whiting Ranch.

Under the version already approved, Hon plans to build 3,900 units of housing. The project is part of the Foothills Phasing Circulation Plan, a huge project under which several developers would pledge to spend $325 million on roads.

Approval of the agreements have been attacked by slow-growth activists who contend that the supervisors are trying to circumvent a slow-growth initiative on the June 7 county ballot. The agreements protect the projects from future land use restrictions. Slow-growth activists have filed court suits challenging the previous Foothill Ranch agreement, as well as five others.

At Tuesday’s Planning Commission meeting, a representative of several slow-growth groups objected to the proposed amendment on the same grounds on which all the agreements have been challenged.