Panel OKs Gypsum Cyn. Jail Report

The Board of Supervisors today approved a controversial environmental impact report for the planned Gypsum Canyon jail, as a narrow majority held together despite protests from area residents and the cities of Anaheim and Yorba Linda.

The 3-2 split, identical to the original vote for a Gypsum Canyon jail in 1987, was expected by opponents. Only four people spoke during the public hearing and there was none of the sign-waving or chanting that occurred during the 1987 vote. At least 50 residents attended the meeting, however.

“It was predetermined,” said Rick Violett, president of Taxpayers for a Centralized Jail, a citizens group that has qualified an initiative for the June, 1990, ballot aimed at preventing construction of the jail.

Major Step

“You knew it, I knew it; no matter what happened, it was going to go through,” he said.

The vote was a major step toward construction of a jail, although several more hurdles still must be overcome, including funding.

As before, Supervisors Gaddi H. Vasquez, whose district includes the jail site, and Don R. Roth, who represents adjacent Anaheim, voted against the jail. Supervisors Thomas F. Riley, Roger R. Stanton and Harriett M. Wieder approved the environmental impact report.

Opponents criticized the report for claiming that the jail would have little or no effect on crime, property values or traffic in the surrounding communities. Pierce O’Donnell, an attorney representing Anaheim, called it “the worst environmental impact report I’ve read in 11 years of environmental law practice.”

The 250-acre site is off the Gypsum Canyon Road exit of the Riverside Freeway, east of Anaheim Hills and south of Yorba Linda. The jail is to provide 6,720 beds--about double the capacity of the county’s jail system now--at a cost of about $700 million. It is the cornerstone of the county’s plans to relieve the jail overcrowding that has been criticized by a federal judge.

Several major problems already have delayed the construction, which originally was expected to start last spring. The county still has not been able to determine how it will pay for the construction or the cost of operating the jail, expected to be about $100 million a year.

Site Owned by Firm

Also, despite extensive negotiations, the county has not been able to buy the property from the Irvine Co.

As Supervisors Roth and Vasquez noted, the county grand jury recommended earlier this year that the supervisors not invest any more money into the jail plans before the site is purchased. The county already has spent about $7 million on its Gypsum Canyon jail plans.

“We are not really prepared to take this action today,” Roth said. “I hope we will stop and take a breath today, and that breath is common sense.”