Local News in Brief : Mission Viejo : Builder Fined for Despoiling Habitat
An Irvine developer has been fined $2,350 for working without a permit in a natural habitat in a 400-acre housing tract in Mission Viejo, a state official said Friday.
Barratt American Inc. was also placed on 1 year of informal probation, state Fish and Game warden Jan Yost said. The company also agreed to establish a wildlife and nature area on the land to replace the destroyed habitat.
The company had been preparing the area for a 1,500-unit housing development called Pacific Hills, east of Marguerite Parkway between La Paz Road and Oso Parkway, company spokesman Jim Montgomery said.
Yost said she warned the company in September after it filled one creek with dirt. In November, she said, workers had begun digging in another creek.
“I told them to apply for (a permit) immediately,” Yost said, “but 2 months later, there wasn’t one.”
Montgomery said Friday that he did not know the area was a wildlife habitat. Workers had inadvertently done the work on the second creek, he said.
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