Options for Canyon Limited : Measure J: If the half-cent sales tax initiative passes, a jail will be built on 2,512 acres; if it fails, an 8,000-home development is planned.

The name Gypsum Canyon will not appear anywhere on the ballot Tuesday, when voters decide whether to raise the county’s sales tax by half a cent for construction of regional justice facilities.

But the rugged canyon between Anaheim Hills and the Riverside County border long has been the battleground in a protracted debate over where to build a new jail.

Sheriff Brad Gates and three of the five members of the Board of Supervisors maintain that revenues from Measure J would provide enough funds to build a 6,720-bed jail here.

Residents of nearby Anaheim Hills and Yorba Linda, however, are vehemently opposed to living next to such a facility and have vowed to defeat Measure J.

No matter what the outcome of Tuesday’s election, this pastoral canyon, where cattle graze among oak trees and wildflowers, is destined to fall prey to the bulldozer: Either a jail will be built on 2,512 acres here or the Irvine Co., which owns the canyon, will proceed with plans for an 8,000-home development called Mountain Park.

Given those two options, some conservationists have reluctantly endorsed the jail plan. For example, the Tri-County Conservation League, with members in Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties, decided late last month to state publicly that they prefer a jail in Gypsum Canyon.

“If we had our druthers, we’d rather see a park out there,” Greg Ballmer, the league’s president, said. “But we think the jail is less obtrusive and less environmentally destructive than a housing development.”

While the campaign for Measure J moves into the last stretch, plans to build the development are going forward. On May 20, the Anaheim Planning Commission is scheduled to hear preliminary plans for Mountain Park. While the canyon is located on unincorporated land, it is in Anaheim’s sphere of influence and officials have already said they want to annex it.

Once the home of Irvine Co. cattle, the canyon has remained undeveloped. A gravel-mining operation takes up part of the northern end of the canyon closest to the Riverside Freeway. Seen from the air, the canyon, separated from the Cleveland National Forest by another canyon, appears as a ragged tear-shaped bowl.

At its northwestern edge, not a mile away, bulldozers are scraping away the top layer of soil to make way for new homes, an extension of Anaheim Hills. To the east about two miles are the county boundary and the Corona city limits. Just beyond the freeway to the north, the Santa Ana River snakes along the southern edge of the Yorba Linda city limits.

The ridges that form the canyon’s periphery rise 1,600 feet above sea level, almost hiding from the freeway the undulating floor that drops to about 450 feet. A few hundred head of cattle belonging to a cattleman who leases land from the Irvine Co. still graze among the soft grasses within the canyon.

When a planning map for the proposed jail is overlaid on the blueprints of the development, the jail appears where the Irvine Co. plans to build homes and winding streets. While plans for both the jail and the residential development call for the peaks and valleys of the canyon floor to be leveled, the Irvine Co. plans to leave one hill at the center and turn it into a park, thus giving the development its name, Mountain Park.

In addition to the jail, the county also plans to build a landfill in the canyon, just south of the jail.

The debate over where to build a new jail has been lingering since 1978, when a federal judge ordered a cap on the population at the Central Men’s Jail. Although county supervisors recognized the need for more jail space, they could not agree on where to build the jail, much less where to get the funding. Supervisor Don R. Roth, whose district includes Anaheim, along with Board Chairman Gaddi H. Vasquez, have consistently opposed building the jail in Gypsum Canyon. Supervisors Harriett M. Wieder, Roger R. Stanton and Thomas F. Riley are in favor of that site.

The county’s current five-jail system, designed to hold 3,203 inmates, frequently houses about 4,400, and Gates has had to institute a number of programs to relieve the overcrowding, including the early release of some inmates.

The jail debate has culminated in Measure J, which was hastily placed on the ballot in February by the newly formed Regional Justice Facilities Commission after a Times Orange County Poll showed that county voters were strongly in favor of raising the sales tax to fund construction of a new jail. If approved, Measure J would increase the county’s sales tax to 7% and would raise what supporters say would be an average of $343 million annually over 30 years.

Although Measure J does not mention the proposed Gypsum Canyon jail, the Board of Supervisors, voting 3 to 2, has made it clear that such a facility should be the No. 1 priority if the ballot measure is approved.

“It’s in everybody’s best interest to build a new jail, but will they get out and vote for a special election?” Riley said.

Indeed, voter turnout will be the key to the outcome of Tuesday’s election, both supporters and opponents agree. Eileen Padberg, a consultant for the Pro-Measure J campaign, has said that a low voter turnout is more likely to help the measure pass. The county registrar of voters is predicting a turnout of 18% to 22%.

Gates’ group, the Committee to Keep Criminals in Jail, has concentrated its efforts on a vigorous direct-mail campaign, sending out literature and requests for absentee ballots to 85,000 selected voters.

“This has been a very confusing topic for the public, but I think they all understand that we need a new jail,” Gates says. “We still feel very positive about the initiative.”

Measure J opponents also have been busy. On various city streets and along some stretches of freeway throughout the county, blue signs with neon orange lettering scream out: “No on J!” Organized only a few weeks ago, Taxpayers Against J has been working to remind voters that Gov. Pete Wilson has raised the possibility of increasing the state sales tax by 1 1/4 cents per dollar to overcome a state budget shortfall. Combined with the Measure J tax, Orange County could face an 8 1/4% sales tax at the cash register, they point out.

“I’m willing to do cost-effective measures, but I’m not willing to do a half-cent sales tax for this (jail),” said Anaheim Mayor Fred Hunter, a leading opponent of Measure J.

Hunter and others also charge that the county’s plans for a Gypsum Canyon jail are nothing more than “empire building” and that Measure J is vaguely written.

While Gates and Anaheim residents have been most vocal about Measure J, others in the county have taken a stand too.

Tustin Mayor Richard B. Edgar, for example, who led his City Council to vote 3 to 0 against Measure J, said the initiative was not written clearly enough to give voters the idea of what they would get for their taxes.

“You’ve got people pitched against each other and all ignoring that a new jail is needed,” he said. “But nobody wants to give a bankroll to a government agency to spend as they wish.”

On the other hand, Grant Baldwin, who heads the 1990-91 Orange County Grand Jury, which endorsed the measure, said that while the opposition is correct in saying that alternatives to incarceration should be sought, the county would still need more jail space.

“It’s unfortunate that this has become a political football,” he said. “The voters may approve this or not, but the problem of jail overcrowding isn’t going to go away, and if this fails, the problem won’t be solved and it’ll come right back to the people.”

The jail debate has moved into other arenas as well.

On Friday, a Municipal Court judge found Gates in contempt of court for releasing too many inmates to relieve jail overcrowding. The judge placed more restrictions on the early release of sentenced inmates and ordered Gates to come up with a plan by June 21 to show what he intends to do to accommodate more inmates.

In Sacramento, meanwhile, the state Assembly on Thursday passed a bill authored by Assemblyman Tom Umberg (D-Garden Grove) that would essentially break the 3-to-2 deadlock on the Board of Supervisors and make it easier for the Board to condemn the Gypsum Canyon property. The bill now moves to the Senate for consideration.

But as the debate on where and how to build a new jail continues on its various fronts, progress continues to close in on Gypsum Canyon, a sign of how long the argument has gone on.

“At one time it was remote,” said Bob Zemel, chairman of the Taxpayers Against J. “But it isn’t remote any more.”

Tuesday’s Election

County voters go to the polls Tuesday to decide on Measure J, the half-cent sales tax initiative for new jail facilities. Voters in the 35th State Senate District also will fill a vacant seat.

* Measure J would increase the county’s sales tax to 7% and raise an average of $343 million annually over 30 years. The measure needs a simple majority.

* The county Regional Justice Facilities Commission, which placed Measure J on the ballot, would then draw up a master plan to decide which projects should receive Measure J funding. The Board of Supervisors has decided that a 6,720-bed jail in Gypsum Canyon, east of Anaheim Hills, should be the top priority. Other public agencies have submitted plans for the funds.

* In the 35th State Senate District, three candidates are vying for the seat that was vacated by John Seymour’s appointment to the U.S. Senate. They are Republican John R. Lewis, Democrat Francis Hoffman and Libertarian Eric Sprik.

* Polls open at 7 a.m. and close at 8 p.m.

* For polling information call, the registrar of voters’ office at (714) 567-7600.