ORANGE : Groups Sue to Block 1,800-Home Project

Homeowners who filed suit against the city this week to stop an 1,800-home development hope a precedent set in Los Angeles will help save 727 acres of rolling hills in northeast Orange.

In July, Altadena residents won a suit against Los Angeles County and halted a 272-home project in the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains. A judge ruled that the environmental impact report for the project was invalid because the county had allowed the developer to conduct the environmental review.

Attorney Deborah S. Bucksbaum, who represents the Mabury Ranch Homeowners Assn. and the Peralta Hills Alliance in their suit against the city, also represented the Altadena residents.

Bucksbaum said the Los Angeles court determined that state regulations require environmental studies to be prepared “directly by or under contract to” the city or county agency.

The homeowners’ effort to reverse City Council approval of the Serrano Heights project is similar to the Los Angeles suit, Bucksbaum said, because the city allowed the Woodcrest Development Co. to hire a consultant to prepare the environmental impact report.

“The city is relying on someone who has a financial stake in the project to determine what the environmental hazards are,” Bucksbaum said.

But Frank Elfend, president of Elfend & Associates, the consulting firm that conducted the environmental review, said it is not unusual for a city to allow a developer hire the consultant to conduct preliminary environmental studies.

Elfend said his company drafted only an initial report and then turned the information over to the city for changes, in accordance with state regulations.

City Atty. Furman B. Roberts said late Thursday that his office still had not reviewed the homeowners’ suit.

Members of the homeowner groups said the lawsuit is a way to draw attention to their concerns about preserving wildlife and one of the city’s last remaining ridgelines.

“Despite all the opposition (to the project), the City Council still voted for this,” said Lisa Lewis, whose Anaheim Hills home is near the development site. “So this was the next logical step. Had they given credence to what we had to say, we maybe wouldn’t be here now.”

The plan, years in development, calls for massive grading of a ridge north of Mabury Ranch and south of Anaheim Hills and would require moving some 12 million cubic yards of earth, according to planning reports. Some hills may be cut by up to 150 feet, while canyons may be filled up to 170 feet, according to planning reports.

The project also guarantees 476 acres of permanent open space, a fully developed four-acre park and the extension of Serrano Avenue, providing a four-lane street connecting Orange and Anaheim.