Irvine Co. Details Plans for Canyon

The Irvine Co. on Wednesday disclosed its preliminary plan to turn Gypsum Canyon into a 10,500-unit housing development that will include a shopping mall, schools and several parks.

The county wants to build a jail and possibly a landfill in the remote canyon area east of Anaheim Hills. But Irvine Co. officials say the land-use conflict will not prevent them from proceeding with plans for the housing project that could add about 25,000 residents to Anaheim.

“The Irvine Co. certainly recognizes the county’s need for an additional jail facility, but at this point there has been no indication they have the funds to purchase the site,” said Dawn McCormick, director of corporate communications for the Irvine Co.

The Gypsum Canyon parcel is currently valued at $30 million to $40 million, an amount that the county reportedly cannot afford at this time. Irvine Co. officials said the housing project would further increase the value of the company’s land but denied that that was their motivation for pursuing development.

Rather, the company was spurred by Hon Development Co.’s request to annex part of Gypsum Canyon for a housing project planned in neighboring Coal Canyon, McCormick said. The proposed annexation of Coal Canyon to the city of Anaheim is pending before the county Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCO).

Meanwhile, the Summit at Anaheim Hills, a housing development being built by the Baldwin Co., is encroaching on Gypsum Canyon from another side. McCormick said LAFCO has asked the developers to work together on a comprehensive plan for the area so that roads, utilities and other services can be coordinated.

Gypsum Canyon already is designated as being within Anaheim’s sphere of influence, which means the area is preapproved for annexation by the city. And despite the county’s plans for a jail and landfill, Anaheim has always intended that Gypsum Canyon become the site for a residential housing development, according to Mary McCloskey, the city’s planning manager.

Irvine Co. officials met with Anaheim planners in September, and the first documents related to the project, called Anaheim Canyon, were filed this week, McCloskey said. She added that the development will be among the largest ever built in the city.

The developer’s proposal calls for a combination of single-family homes, townhouses and apartments to be built over 10 to 15 years. About a third of the project will be open space, allowing for the preservation of perimeter ridgelines for use as recreation areas and hiking trails.

A shopping center is envisioned for the central area of Anaheim Canyon, and planners anticipate that the community will need one high school, one junior high school and three elementary schools.

McCloskey said city planners will be examining the Anaheim Canyon proposal to ensure that it includes the proper mix of housing and commercial zoning and that streets and sewers are adequate. McCloskey said she has some initial concerns about the lot sizes in Anaheim Canyon, which are smaller than Anaheim generally requires.

The Irvine Co. has hired the LSA Co., an Irvine-based consultant, to prepare an environmental impact report for the project. That report is scheduled to be finished in January and submitted to the Anaheim Planning Commission and City Council for approval in the spring of 1990.

If city officials approve the plan, it will go before LAFCO for a vote on annexation of the property to Anaheim. The Irvine Co. could break ground on the project as early as 1991, McCormick said.

So far, the Irvine Co. has encountered little opposition to the project, according to Jennings D. Pierce Jr., vice president of Foothill Community Builders, a division of the Irvine Co. Supporters of the rare Tecate cypress tree, which grows in the canyon, however, have expressed environmental concerns about the development, Pierce said.

But as far as the county is concerned, the fate of Gypsum Canyon is uncertain.

In August, the Board of Supervisors approved an environmental impact report on the effects of building a 6,720-bed jail in Gypsum Canyon, changing the area’s zoning to public facilities.

The cities of Anaheim, Yorba Linda and Corona then sued the county over the report, claiming that it was incomplete with regard to the impact the jail would have on traffic and crime in the area. The county is scheduled to file a response to the lawsuit next week.

County officials had hoped to raise money to build the jail through a half-cent sales tax that could be on the countywide ballot as early as June, 1990. But a citizens’ group has filed a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the Orange County tax proposal and others slated to go before voters in Los Angeles County and elsewhere, all of which would require only a majority vote for passage.

The suit contends that Proposition 13 requires such tax measures to be approved by a two-thirds majority of voters.