Planning Commission OKs Business Park Plan Supported by Naturalists

With unusual backing from a cadre of naturalists, a 117-acre development that would require removing 245 oak trees received unanimous conceptual approval from the Planning Commission Tuesday night.

The Valley Gateway project by Hondo Oil & Gas Co. would create nearly a million square feet of business park and corporate office space while removing more than one-fifth of the designated area’s 1,114 oak trees.

As designed, Valley Gateway uses almost all of the existing graded areas and maintains a wildlife corridor for animals nearly 500 feet wide. Also, 52 acres, nearly half of the project, will be designated as natural open space and be dedicated to public use. The area to be dedicated includes the Beale’s Cut stagecoach pass, which last year was declared a state historic landmark.

The project will be built on the site of an existing oil refinery, an area that planning commissioners said is scarred by concrete, steel and asphalt reminders of the once-profitable industry.

“This is a welcomed relief to what is a tarnished site now,” Commissioner Jerry Cherrington said before the vote. “I love it.”

Local environmentalists had divided opinions on the development.

“This is a watershed development,” said Keefe Ferrandini, president of the Elsmere Coalition, “that would hopefully lead to a rebirth of our much-neglected east end of the valley.”

But other conservation groups expressed concern that the width of the planned wildlife corridor--the result of a compromise between the developer and a Sierra Club option--was insufficient and that too many oak trees would be sacrificed. None of the trees to be removed are heritage-sized. To be heritage-sized, the circumference of the oak tree must measure 108 inches or more.

“If you approve this project without approval in writing from a wildlife-corridor expert, you will be making a mistake,” said Karen Pearson, president of the local Sierra Club chapter.

The project is next to Elsmere Canyon, the proposed site for a 190-million-ton landfill that is opposed by the city. One of the objections that the city has raised against the proposed dump is its impact on wildlife.

“How can the city mount a legal attack on an inadequate wildlife corridor in Elsmere Canyon if they approve an inadequate one in the Gateway project?” Pearson said.

It is unclear whether the wildlife corridor expert consulted by the project designers and the city approved of the compromise.

The project will return to the commission for final approval on June 15.