Boys Town Ready to Build Refuge in Trabuco as Legal Fight Ends : Juveniles: Five homes for troubled and needy youths are planned on a 76-acre canyon parcel. Opponents decline further court appeals.

Boys Town USA is moving forward with plans to build five homes for troubled and needy youths on a 76-acre parcel here, despite unflagging opposition from neighbors and environmentalists who say the complex will spoil a scenic ridgeline.

The cluster of homes, which will house 30 youths, recently survived a legal challenge by opponents, who alleged that the project will violate county environmental limits on grading.

To make way for the houses and a swimming pool, Boys Town officials want to lop 19 feet off a ridge that forms a backdrop for the Rose Canyon and Trabuco Oaks communities. But local guidelines limit ridgeline grading to 10 feet, foes said.

Ray Chandos, co-founder of the Rural Canyons Conservation Fund, filed suit against the project in 1989 on behalf of the project’s foes after it won final approval from the Board of Supervisors.

Serving as his own attorney, Chandos won the initial round in Orange County Superior Court in 1990, but the decision was reversed by the 4th District Court of Appeal in August. He has decided not to appeal.

Now that they have steered out of the legal morass, Boys Town officials hope to gear up their fund raising and begin construction next year, with the facility opening in 1993.

“We were very happy when the lawsuit was finally put to rest,” said Michael Riley, Boys Town USA’s Southern California site director. “All we want to do is set up our programs and start serving kids who are in trouble.”

Each of the five 4,000-square-foot houses in the cluster will be staffed by a married couple, who will serve as “family teachers” and live with six children assigned to each home, Riley said. The children, ages 9 to 17 and both boys and girls, will be referred to the program by the county Probation Department or the Department of Social Services.

Each child will attend regular community schools or alternative schools. The average length of stay will range widely--from a year for some youths to five or six years for others, Riley said.

There are nine Boys Town sites in the country, including the original mini-city of more than 500 youths in Omaha, Neb., which inspired the 1938 film of the same name, starring Spencer Tracy and Mickey Rooney.

But the Trabuco Canyon site will be the first in Southern California.

Opponents say they have nothing against Boys Town or the project but are upset because construction will tatter the picturesque ridgeline, which rises west of Rose Canyon Road.

Chandos said he was also troubled because Boys Town’s attorneys portrayed project foes as upper-class elitists who want to keep poor orphans out of their neighborhood and because the first five houses could be just the start of a far more extensive project.

“We are concerned this is a scam to get a foot in the door and then sell off the rest of the property to make money for Boys Town,” Chandos said.

Riley said Boys Town has no such plans.

“For some reason, he and his group have it in their heads that we’re going to do something else with this land,” Riley said. “Even on the outside chance that we did want to build more homes out there, we’d have to go through the same process we’ve already been through--and we have no desire to do that. It’s been tough enough just getting to this point.”

Riley said the only plans for the land are perhaps to build a playing field on the lower portions in the future. The homes will be clustered on another part of the site, with upward of 25 acres set aside for residents to use for riding horses or hiking, Riley said.

“We’re extremely sensitive to the neighbors’ concerns,” Riley said. “It’s a beautiful area. That’s why we selected it. And that’s why we’re only putting five homes on 76 acres.”