Firm to Pay $34 Million in Exchange for Housing OK

The Mission Viejo Co. has agreed to pay the county $34 million to close out its obligations for road and tollway construction in Aliso Viejo in exchange for approval to build the last phase of 2,700 homes there.

Those homes have been in legal limbo because the county could not approve construction until the company fulfilled its contract to provide road improvements, including money for the San Joaquin Hills tollway.

The 2,700 homes will not be built for five to 10 years, Mission Viejo Co. spokeswoman Wendy Wetzel said.

The county had already approved building 17,300 homes in Aliso Viejo, 5,100 of which have been built and are home to 11,500 residents.

Under the agreement reached this week, the developer’s total cost for road improvements in the Aliso Viejo area will be $68 million.

All of the $34 million will go to the agency building the tollway. Wally Kreutzen, the tollway agency’s financial chief, said most of the new money will be held in reserve by county government until the tollway agency begins paying construction bills.

Just $3 million will be used to reimburse the agency for design costs already incurred.

Construction of the tollway is scheduled to begin early next year, but the project is the target of lawsuits alleging that the road will destroy sensitive animal habitats and foul the air with auto exhaust.

Norm Grossman, a member of the board of the Laguna Greenbelt, an environmental organization, said the $34-million agreement is “typical of the county’s lack of planning.”

Grossman said that as a result of the agreement, thousands of new homes will be built, generating upward of 80,000 vehicle trips per day without waiting for new roads or the tollway to be built.

Under the county’s original plan, Grossman said, just half the homes were to be built, with the other half delayed until the tollway opens to traffic.

But the county’s planning director, Thomas B. Mathews, said his agency can still force builders to phase in new units as road improvements in the area are completed.

The $34-million agreement has been approved by the county Planning Commission. The Board of Supervisors is expected tp consider approving it Aug. 6.