MISSION VIEJO : Judge Clears Way for Hillside Excavation

A Superior Court judge ruled Monday that the Transportation Corridor Agencies can begin excavating a Mission Viejo site that an environmental group maintains is ecologically sensitive.

Judge William F. Rylaarsdam refused to issue a stay order on behalf of the Sea and Sage chapter of the Audubon Society, clearing the way for excavation to begin as soon as Wednesday, TCA officials said.

The agency plans to dig up about 1 million yards of dirt from the 210 acres of hillside land between Aliso Creek and El Toro Road at Mission Viejo’s northern border. The soil will be used in a nearby bridge-construction project for the TCA’s proposed Foothill Corridor tollway.

Disappointed environmentalists said the ruling means that many acres of wilderness habitat will be permanently destroyed.

“The net result of this decision means that the TCA will be able to trash the site,” said Ray Chandos, who filed the stay-order request along with the Audubon Society. “Now, people jogging or biking through that scenic corridor will be running through a back alley.”

Lisa Telles, a TCA spokeswoman, applauded the judge’s decision.

“We have done an environmental-impact study for the Foothill Corridor and applied for all the necessary permits from the city,” she said. “We are happy with the judge’s decision.”

No decision has been made on whether to appeal the ruling, Chandos said.

The property is owned by the Mission Viejo Co. The firm is one of several developers participating in the Foothill Corridor project, a toll road being built by the TCA.

In June, the Audubon Society and other environmentalists filed a lawsuit against the city and a developer over a proposed business complex on the site. The ecologists maintain that the city approved the development without proper environmental studies. The case is scheduled to be heard in November.

However, by then it might be too late to save the area, which is covered with several varieties of coastal sagebrush and may be home to the California gnatcatcher, which has been proposed for the federal endangered species list, Chandos said.

“By then, the results of our litigation would be academic,” Chandos said. “We have lost something very valuable.”