In Reversal, Judge Gives Las Flores Green Light : Development: A 2,500-home project’s environmental impact report was properly conducted after all, he decides. Foes protest ‘shabby treatment,’ may appeal.

Construction of the 2,500-home Las Flores development in South County will proceed as planned, after a statement by Superior Court Judge Leonard Goldstein that he had erred earlier this summer when he ordered the project blocked.

The judge’s latest decision--made public late Friday--is a blow to environmentalists, including the local chapter of the National Audubon Society, which argued in court that county officials violated state law when they approved the development without adequately addressing environmental issues, including wildlife preservation and traffic and air pollution.

The environmentalists hailed the July decision, but one of the plaintiffs, Ray Chandos, said he is frustrated with the judge’s Friday reversal. He said environmentalists will probably appeal the new ruling.

“We think we got shabby treatment at the hands of the judiciary because of their lack of independence from the Board of Supervisors,” Chandos said. “I think we were right on the law, and the appeal will bear that out.”

Goldstein raised questions about the validity of the project’s environmental impact report when he ruled this summer that the county had not adequately addressed the project’s traffic impact.

But in the latest order, Goldstein stated: “It is now apparent that the court misconstrued the evidence presented at the initial hearing for the writ.”

He ruled that “the Board (of Supervisors) had sufficient evidence before it to justify the action it took, and that the board acted correctly in the exercise of its discretion.”

Goldstein said he had not intended earlier to decertify the project but wanted to give the county a chance to submit more evidence on the traffic issue. After reviewing the record, Goldstein decided that he had misunderstood the evidence and that the supervisors indeed had adequate information when they approved the project.

His first judgment, the new order stated, “was improvidently and erroneously entered.”

A spokeswoman for the Las Flores developer, the Santa Margarita Co., said company officials are reviewing plans to decide when to resume grading of the land, now used for agriculture.

“The ruling upholds the county’s planning, review and approval system,” spokeswoman Diane Gaynor said. “We hope that the benefits associated with Las Flores are not overshadowed by this lawsuit.”

County Counsel Terry C. Andrus said the county staff “feels vindicated” by Goldstein’s latest order.

“We did everything correctly, and I think we were surprised by the initial ruling,” he said. “With the clarification, we have a correct ruling now.”

The Las Flores project area, totaling 1,005 acres, is south of Rancho Santa Margarita, between Mission Viejo and Coto de Caza. Of the 380 acres to be developed, 218 contain the rapidly disappearing coastal sage scrub that is habitat for the California gnatcatcher. The songbird was recently recommended by federal officials on the endangered species list.

But Gaynor said a biological study of the site by her firm did not find any gnatcatchers nesting in the area targeted for development.

Because the judge made a tentative ruling in favor of the environmentalists but did not yet issue a formal order, Santa Margarita Co. officials maintained that Goldstein had not entirely voided the project and the company continued to clear the land. The earthmovers were halted when the judge’s written order was issued.

Chandos faults the county’s environmental review for not addressing the impact that the planned community will have on Interstate 5 traffic.

“If that is acceptable--to plan a large project without considering the impact on the nearby freeway--what hope do we have of ever straightening out the traffic problems that we have?” he asked.