Girl Scouts Win OK to Occupy Campground : Property: County planners have granted them conditional use of a 188-acre ranch near Caspers Wilderness Park.

The Orange County Girl Scouts won approval Wednesday to occupy their first county campground when the county Planning Commission cleared the way for them to move onto a 188-acre ranch once used by a drug-smuggling operation.

Barring an appeal by an opponent to the Board of Supervisors, Girl Scout leaders said the Scouts could be singing around campfires on the land by this summer.

“I am just thrilled,” said Mona Ware, executive director of the Girl Scout Council of Orange County, which has worked for two years to move onto the land near Ronald W. Caspers Wilderness Park. “We have been looking forward to a day like this since . . . well, I cannot remember.”

Lloyd Massey, a former Girl Scout Council board member, told the commission that, for years, local Girl Scouts have traveled to Riverside County for overnight camping activities.

“There’s 23,000 (Girl Scouts) in Orange County. They need something like this. They have needed it for years,” he said.

The Girl Scouts plan to use the site as a “primitive” camp with equestrian and hiking trails. Ten permanent campsites will be used year round, and 22 seasonal sites will be occupied in the spring and fall.

The rugged terrain, known as Rancho del Rio, is four miles east of Ortega Highway, next to Riverside County. It was seized by federal drug enforcement agents in 1985. The county assumed control of the land two years later.

After a bidding war with an Irvine realty firm, the Girl Scout Council bought the land for $2.1 million in 1991. But the purchase did not guarantee automatic use of the land as a wilderness park for Scouts.

After months of review, the planning staff attached two dozen conditions to the land’s use. The restrictions were designed to protect the wildlife on the property and make it safer for use as a campground.

Of particular concern to county officials was the presence of mountain lions in the Santa Ana Mountains. The county is appealing a jury verdict that ordered it to pay $2.2 million to the family of a young girl who was mauled by a mountain lion in Caspers Wilderness Park.

In granting approval for the Girl Scout park, the Planning Commission required that parents be informed of “the potential hazard” at the campgrounds, and that “ultimate liability” for the safety of campers lies with the Girl Scout Council.

Other concerns were raised by the Sea and Sage chapter of the Audubon Society.

While “there are not too many other groups we would rather have in there than the Girl Scouts,” said Peter Bloom, chapter vice president, too many Scouts using the campground regularly could ruin the natural environment.

But, after the vote, Bloom said the organization’s concerns were settled by the conditions placed on the use of the land.

The Girl Scouts will not be allowed to use the existing buildings until inspectors determine whether they meet building codes. The buildings were constructed by the previous owner without building permits, the planning staff said.

Because the campground is within an “extreme fire hazard” area, the county also required that campfires be restricted to fire rings in cleared areas, and that other fire-prevention measures be taken.