YORBA LINDA : Panel Hears Plea for Cougar Habitat

Environmentalists begged the Yorba Linda Planning Commission this week to prohibit commercial development on land next to the Riverside Freeway, preserving a wildlife corridor they said has been used by mountain lions for thousands of years.

Wildlife biologists and representatives of the Sierra Club and Friends of the Tecate Cypress made their plea during the Planning Commission’s first public hearing on the city’s General Plan update. The hearing will continue Aug. 5.

The General Plan, which sets city policies for development, streets and open space preservation, was adopted in 1971 and has been updated periodically over the years to reflect changing conditions and concerns.

For the latest update, the city hired consultants who worked with a citizens’ steering committee for more than a year.

The update keeps most of the original development policies intact but adds plans for redevelopment of the downtown area and the development of homes on the expansive Shell and Murdock properties, which are currently in unincorporated areas that the city may eventually annex.

But public testimony at the first hearing Wednesday night focused on concerns for wildlife on 57 acres of land just north of the Riverside Freeway.

Environmentalists said the general commercial development proposed on property owned by the Saba family would hurt the mountain lions and other large animals that inhabit the area and use a gully through the center of the property and an adjoining culvert to move under the freeway at night.

The mountain lions prefer to use the narrow gully and culvert rather than the larger, wider Brush Canyon nearby, because the canyon is surrounded by homes and is used by other animals that can “stress” the cougars, wildlife biologists said.

The mountain lion is not an endangered animal in California but its survival is threatened in Southern California, said Ed Harrison, a representative of the California Parks and Conservation Assn.

Keeping the large animals is crucial to maintaining healthy populations of other species, said Steve Loe, a wildlife biologist who has studied the wildlife on the Saba property and in the Featherly Park area for a number of years.

The Saba property, which is in a flood hazard zone, is also a riparian habitat rich with willows and cottonwoods, environmentalists said.

Rather than allowing shops, restaurants and hotels to be built, the city should retain the horse stables and youth bicycle track now in place on the property, since these uses have proved to be compatible with the wildlife, the environmentalists said.

“It’s not like the cougars can’t stand anything there,” Loe said.

The Planning Commission will continue to take public input and will make its recommendations to the City Council on Aug. 5.