Trabuco Canyon : Officials to Weigh 5 Key Development Projects

The county Planning Commission decided Tuesday to consider five development proposals, including an ambitious plan to build a $55-million church with 4,800 seats near Trabuco Canyon.

The projects are involved in a larger debate over development of a 6,500-acre swath of backcountry northeast of Mission Viejo.

The commission, in a bid to give supporters of the projects some direction, said it will take a straw vote on each proposal at its Oct. 10 meeting. Among the projects are two new church complexes, both on Santiago Canyon Road; two neighborhood shopping centers on opposite corners of Live Oak Canyon and Santiago Canyon roads, and a 68-unit housing development on 69 acres next to Seventh-day Adventist church property.

The most controversial of the proposals is Saddleback Valley Community Church’s plan to build a seven-story sanctuary with parking for 2,200 vehicles on a 113-acre parcel bordering Cleveland National Forest.

Supporters say the site, north of Cook’s Corner (where Santiago Canyon Road and Live Oak Canyon Road merge and become El Toro Road) and east of Portola Hills, is one of the few locales large enough in southern Orange County to accommodate the parish’s growth and programs.

Environmentalists, however, say the project is too urbanized for the area and would mean significant grading and destruction of oak trees, many of them several centuries old.

A decision on a sweeping plan for general development in the Foothill-Trabuco area, including limits on construction of new homes, is not expected until early next year.