Corona’s Annexation Bid Hits a Development Snag : Construction: A major housing project proposed for Eagle Valley is stalled by a Riverside County report on traffic problems.

A proposal to extend the city’s boundaries well to the southeast faced a possible setback Thursday after a Riverside County report concluded the area is still ill-equipped for a massive housing development on the site.

The city of Corona, along with an Orange-based development company, had proposed the annexation of more than 2,600 acres in unincorporated Eagle Valley to clear the way for the construction of 3,000 homes, condominiums and apartments.

The staff of Riverside County’s Local Agency Formation Commission has recommended that the proposal be denied or delayed for six months until developers come up with solutions to handle additional traffic. The seven-member commission has authority over annexations in the county.

“What the development is proposing at build-out is at least 40,000 additional (vehicle) trips,” said Pat Bowler, LAFCO’s assistant executive officer. “That is a significant impact.”

But Dennis Bushore, the project manager for Eagle Valley Development Co., said that Cajalco Road, the main road to the project area, would be widened and that the development would create no roads that would lead residents to travel through nearby areas.

“It has no impact on the surrounding communities,” Bushore said. “The terrain is such that it only can be accessed by Cajalco and La Sierra” roads.

The staff report also raised concerns that firefighters could have difficulty fighting wildfires in the area. Although the project will include a fire and police station, Corona still needs to agree on a plan with the California Department of Forestry outlining who will respond to a major wildfire in the area, Bowler said.

Opponents of the project, including homeowners in unincorporated communities near the development site, say that it would open up the otherwise rural area to urban sprawl. Eagle Valley, named for the golden eagles that live there, is an isolated area dotted with some citrus groves. It is located about 3 miles southeast of Corona and west of Lake Mathews, a reservoir for the Metropolitan Water District.

“The city’s current policy appears to be one of extending its boundaries to any unspoiled area on its perimeter,” Art Cassel, a member of a homeowners’ association near Lake Mathews, said in a letter to the commission.

LAFCO staff members also said they were concerned because the annexed territory would be arranged in a moon shape around the unincorporated community of El Cerrito, leaving it partially surrounded by Corona.

But Bushore said that the impact on neighboring communities will be offset because the Eagle Valley project, to be built on about 1,000 acres, is isolated by mountain ridges.

“If it was a flat area in the middle of the desert, that would be different,” he said.

LAFCO had scheduled a hearing on the development for Thursday, but it was continued until Sept. 27 so that Eagle Valley Development officials could negotiate a settlement with rock-mining companies in the area, Bushore said.

The companies filed lawsuits against the project, fearing that suburban development would encroach upon their rights to mine. But the Corona City Council last week passed several measures ensuring that the operations could remain in the area.