MISSION VIEJO : Council Considers Weed Law Change

Seeking to revise a city law that allowed 85 acres of potentially environmentally sensitive land to be cleared last week, the City Council proposed changing its weed abatement ordinance Monday to impose more restrictions on property owners.

City Councilman Robert D. Breton also called for an investigation of the Mission Viejo Co.’s role in arranging for the use of heavy machinery to clear scrub brush from the land off El Toro Road at Mission Viejo’s northern border.

“It’s incumbent upon us, as the City Council, to investigate the suspicions and allegations” surrounding the abatement activities, Breton said.

The builder used tractors last week to clear the coastal sage that environmentalists say is home to endangered plant and wildlife species.

Two days before the weed clearing, the city Planning Commission had restricted weed abatement tools to hand mowers and weed eaters. But the developer went to City Manager Fred Sorsabal, who allowed the use of heavy machinery on the property. Sorsabal said the land had been cleared in a similar manner about every six months for the past 20 years.

The Mission Viejo Co. plans to build a business complex on the property, which totals 214 acres.

The council called for an immediate halt to grading there and will hold a public hearing at a future council session on these proposed changes: all weed abatement must be approved by the county fire marshal; a biologist to be selected from a list suggested by environmentalists will oversee weed abatement; a biologist will have the power to prohibit the clearing of environmentally sensitive land; and the council and Planning Commission will have new authority to impose more restrictions on a specific request for weed abatement.