EL TORO : Church, Developer Agree to Land Swap

Officials at the Saddleback Valley Community Church and Hon Development have agreed to a land swap that will move a proposed $55-million church complex out of the rural foothills below Cleveland National Park and nearer to El Toro, county officials said Monday.

The church, with one of the county’s fastest-growing congregations, will take over a 60-acre industrial site between El Toro Road and the proposed Foothill Transportation Corridor. In return, Hon will get the church’s hilly, 113-acre parcel off Santiago Canyon Road near Live Oak Canyon Road.

On Monday, officials at the Environmental Management Agency signed a notice of preparation on the new church site, which in effect starts the county’s land-use planning study. It will begin an environmental impact report and eventually conduct public hearings before the Planning Commission.

Glen Kruen, executive pastor of the Saddleback church, said that a verbal agreement has been reached on the swap but that it will not take place until the county grants approval of the church complex at the new site in the 2,700-acre, $2-billion Foothill Ranch planned community.

When church officials initially proposed building a Trabuco Canyon complex that called for lighted softball fields, 84 rooms for Sunday school and parking for 2,200 vehicles, critics complained that it would generate too much traffic and ruin the rural flavor of the area that stretches toward the Santa Ana Mountains.

Under the new plan, the church would build a 2,800-seat fellowship hall, a 32,000-square-foot school building that could double as a day-care center, parking lots and baseball parks during the first phase of construction at the site near El Toro.

In the second and third phases, a main church capable of seating 4,800 would be built, along with two more large school buildings and a gymnasium. The building plan could take up to 10 years to complete.

“Absolutely everyone is a winner,” said County Supervisor Gaddi H. Vasquez, who brought Hon Development and Saddleback Valley Church together to begin negotiations. “It relieves a lot of people of a major issue.”

Hon Vice President Chris Downey said the company has no immediate plan to develop the 113-acre parcel. Company officials, he said, intend to hold the property as an investment for a couple of years.