County Sued Over Aliso Viejo Project : Litigation: Supervisors’ approval of 2,700 homes in exchange for $34 million for tollway called illegal.

A San Juan Capistrano environmental group sued the County Board of Supervisors on Thursday, charging that it illegally approved the construction of 2,700 homes in Aliso Viejo in exchange for $34 million to build a key South County tollway.

Save Our San Juan, a group seeking to halt the construction of the proposed San Joaquin Hills toll road, claimed that the board action on Aug. 27 circumvents the environmental review process.

The vote modified a 12-year-old agreement between the county and the developer, the Mission Viejo Co., which had made approval of the homes contingent on construction of the toll road.

The housing project’s environmental impact report had also been approved with that contingency.

By then allowing home building to start without a toll road, the county sidestepped the law, the suit alleges. The suit also names the Mission Viejo Co.

The county has now approved the homes “without any assurance of traffic relief,” said Save Our San Juan President Robert King in a press release.

The 2,700 homes are the final phase of the 17,300-home planned community of Aliso Viejo.

As part of the agreement in August, the Mission Viejo Co. agreed to advance the county $34 million toward construction of the 15-mile toll road that would bisect the community.

King also claimed that the supervisors and the Transportation Corridor Agencies are trying to bypass the environmental difficulties they are having with the toll road. The validity of the environmental impact report on the toll road has been legally challenged; a hearing is set Oct. 23.