COTA DE CAZA : Planners Reject New Shooting Club Site

A plan to relocate a 22-year-old shooting club in Coto de Caza to a more remote canyon was rejected Wednesday by the Orange County Planning Commission, leaving the fate of the club in limbo.

Planning commissioners, however, denied the relocation application “without prejudice,” meaning that they will agree in the future to consider another site plan for the 200-member club if it is placed in another location that poses less of a hazard to wildlife or public safety.

Frank McGill, a member of the county’s land planning division, said the county staff believes that “the project should be denied.”

But he added that “by making some changes to the plan, it might be made acceptable.”

McGill said the staff had determined that despite the problems presented by the plan, possible harm to important wildlife habitat and potential endangerment to people using a nearby regional equestrian and hiking path, the location under consideration would have “the least adverse impact” of any in the 5,200-acre Coto de Caza community.

A group of charitable organizations that hold fund-raisers at the club pleaded that the county let it continue to operate by approving a new lodge site after further environmental study.

However, most of the commissioners said at Wednesday’s meeting that although they have nothing against the club, they thought that they already knew enough about the problems with the relocation site to turn the proposal down.

“After a site visitation, it was clear to me this will never be a safe site for the hunt club,” Commissioner Thomas Moody said.

The bid to relocate the Coto de Caza Hunt Lodge, where shotgun enthusiasts shoot at clay pigeons, is a response to an agreement that settled litigation between the club and Coto de Caza Ltd., the developer of Coto de Caza. Under the settlement, the club has agreed to move about one mile east of its current location to allow the developer to go ahead with plans to build a new golf-course community.