Coal Canyon Housing Gets Green Light : Development: Project environmental impact report approved over protests regarding loss of mountain lion habitat.

Over the protests of 30 environmentalists, the city council voted Tuesday to accept the environmental impact report approving a 1,550-home development in Coal Canyon.

The council voted 4 to 0 to accept the report, which will allow Hon Development Co. to go forward with its plans to develop the 663-acre project over the next eight years.

Angry environmentalists Tuesday night assailed the development, telling the City Council at a public hearing that the homes would destroy one of the North County’s last pristine canyons and mountain lion habitats.

But Hon officials said the project, to be called Cypress Canyon, would have little impact on the approximately 40 lions that roam the Santa Ana Mountains. The project would include an eight-acre commercial area and public buildings such as an elementary school and fire station.

“The city’s own staff has said this project could lead to the loss of mountain lions in the Chino Hills,” said Paul Beyer, a wildlife biologist for the University of California. According to state environmental law, he said, there must be an “overriding consideration” to eliminate the area’s mountain lions.

“So you have to find that this project of $300,000 homes is so important that we have to eliminate the area’s mountain lions,” Beyer told the council.

But Councilman Irv Pickler said that two “movement corridors” will be maintained to allow mountain lions to go from Coal Canyon under the Riverside Freeway to Cleveland National Forest. That, he said, would ensure their survival.

“By having this corridor, the mountain lions will be able to transverse the project, and will be able to go through it to the forest,” he said.

Hon Vice President Mike Mohler said the Cypress Canyon project is a “logical conclusion” of the residential development that has been going on in East Anaheim, Yorba Linda and the Chino area.

The hearing was held on the project’s environmental impact report, a two-inch-thick document of more than 300 pages. The council was expected to vote whether to accept the report later Tuesday night.

Tuesday was just the latest skirmish between the environmentalists and Hon over the mountain lions. Just last week, the Sacramento-based Mountain Lion Foundation petitioned the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to declare the lions living in the canyon an endangered species. Such a declaration, if granted, would effectively block the project.

Cheryl Heffley, a wildlife biologist for the state Department of Fish and Game, said her department opposes the development.

“People are not going to tolerate large animals in their neighborhood,” she said. “It’s inevitable that human and animal conflicts will arise” in the project because the housing will be built in what the animals now know to be their territory.

Plans to build in the canyon have been in the works for years. Last year Hon modified its proposal, eliminating plans to build 18 $1-million homes on another 1,000 acres in the canyon and selling that land to the state for $4 million after environmentalists said that project would destroy one of the last Tecate cypress forests in the West. That land is now a reserve.

Coal Canyon Development

What: Cypress Canyon, a 1,550-home project proposed for 663 acres in Coal Canyon. It would also include an eight-acre commercial area, one elementary school and various city buildings.

Where: Coal Canyon is east of Anaheim Hills in county territory but within Anaheim’s sphere of influence.

Developer: Hon Development Co. of Laguna Hills.

Controversy: Environmentalists argue that the development would destroy one of north Orange County’s last pristine canyons and habitats for mountain lions. The Sacramento-based Mountain Lion Foundation has petitioned the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to declare the lions in the canyon an endangered species. But Hon officials say the development would have little impact on the estimated 40 mountain lions that roam the Santa Ana Mountains.