545-Acre Development Proposal Forces City to Redefine Rural Lifestyle : Development: A proposed housing and golf project on 545 acres in Powder Canyon is forcing residents to take a hard look at redefining their rural lifestyle.

When this suburb of 6,000 incorporated in 1978, one city councilman declared that every pothole should be left exactly where it was. Residents prefer the town this way: without sidewalks, street lamps or video rental stores.

But after defining itself by the motto “Rural Country Living” for 14 years, La Habra Heights is considering a proposal to develop the city’s second exclusive country club.

The project, on private land surrounding Powder Canyon, would include an 18-hole golf course, equestrian trails, 136 homes, 44 guest cottages, a pro shop and an exclusive club--all protected by a private security force.

“The city without so much as a corner grocery store could now have a 545-acre multiuse development,” said resident Rick Creighton, an Orange County firefighter. “Is this what we want?”

Sequoia Real Estate of Torrance has submitted the Powder Canyon Country Club plan to the La Habra Heights Planning Commission, which had a public hearing on the matter last week.

Some opponents are rankled by the possible destruction of a vast, wild area. Powder Canyon is the home of mule deer, coastal live oak and the last two mating pairs of grasshopper sparrows in Los Angeles County, according to a recent environmental report.

Other residents worry that increased traffic on nearby Skyline Drive and Fullerton Road would change the nature of their narrow country roads. Some are concerned that the development will change the self-image of La Habra Heights: from country homes to a playground for the wealthy.

Most agree on one thing, however. The discussion itself is forcing residents to redefine their slice of paradise.

“The city government wants rich people to live here,” said Tanya Ericson, who was born and raised in La Habra Heights. “But this has always been a city of working people--nice working people.”

In the past several years, newcomers have discovered the bucolic charm of this city, building multimillion-dollar homes on one-acre lots of a former avocado grove. Some newer residents have installed perimeter fences, security systems and floodlights, all foreign to longtime residents, some of whom keep chickens or horses.

La Habra Heights has one restaurant and a pro shop in its tax base, both anomalies in a city that swore off retail sales. But those facilities are part of the 73-year-old Hacienda Golf Club and were grandfathered into the city at incorporation.

City Councilwoman Judy Hathaway-Francis concedes that upscale developments are attractive to the city, because municipal revenue from the state and other sources has fallen during the recession. But this is the same city that banned private gates into neighborhoods in 1990, calling the action a stand against elitism.

City leaders also understand that private property is sacred, Hathaway-Francis said.

“You can’t take away a man’s private property, and the city can’t afford to buy the canyon,” Mayor Jean Good said. “The question is, would you like a golf course and 136 homes or 244 homes . . . or a landfill?”

The development proposal in its current form would encompass 545 acres of brush-covered canyon and hillsides generally north of the Y intersection of Fullerton Road and Skyline Drive in the northeast corner of La Habra Heights. Farther to the north is Rowland Heights and to the east is unincorporated county territory.

The Planning Commission meeting revealed a community split between those who believe Powder Canyon Country Club would be an attractive addition to the city and those who want the canyon left as it is.

The meeting drew more than 100 people to the town’s tiny community center where consultants presented a revised report on the environmental effects of the project. In response to resident concerns raised by the first report, Sequoia Real Estate agreed to reduce grading by more than 2 million cubic yards, remove houses from the ridgelines and reduce the number of guest cottages.

The project still would wipe out most of the area’s wildlife, according to the environmental report.

“Few sites contain as much bio-diversity,” wrote Jack Easton of Tierra Madre Consultants in the environmental report. “The proposed project will drastically reduce this bio-diversity and destroy the integrity of the local ecosystem.”

The canyon contains a variety of habitats, including chaparral, non-native grasslands, coastal live oak woodland, coastal sage scrub and California walnut woodland. The area supports bobcats, mule deer, gray foxes and a number of birds, Easton said.

“If they graded one-third of the site instead of two-thirds, they could preserve some of the habitat but, as it is, I don’t think much will survive,” Easton said.

The proposed grading, guest quarters, retail shop and ridgeline changes are all forbidden by the city’s General Plan, officials said.

A 1988 ballot measure asked voters if the city should consider allowing the property to be developed as a country club, even though the plan required “significant deviations from the city’s grading standards.” By more than 2 to 1, the voters answered yes.

“I think a golf course would look a whole lot nicer than what’s there,” said resident Norm Watkins.

At last week’s meeting, however, a majority of speakers opposed the development. Mike Cole, 35, said that as a boy, he explored the trails in Powder Canyon, and he jogs along them today. He has been coming to the canyon so long that he feels as if he has homesteaded it, he said.

What makes Cole angry is that after the hills are graded for a golf course and homes, the developer intends to close off Powder Canyon to others. Hardy Strozier, a planning consultant, confirmed that the remaining natural canyon would be closed to protect the wildlife.

“Nature belongs to all of us, not just a few,” Cole said. “They’re taking Powder Canyon and putting it under glass for only the country club members to enjoy.”

NEXT STEP

Another public hearing on the Powder Canyon proposal will be held April 23. No date has been set for a Planning Commission vote.