Residents Sue Builder Over Plan for Gravel Mining Near Homes

More than 30 Mission Viejo homeowners accuse Bramalea California Inc. of failing to tell them that a gravel-mining operation was planned in an unspoiled valley near their homes.

The homeowners’ allegations of fraud and breach of contract came in a lawsuit filed Friday in Superior Court in Santa Ana. The suit seeks as yet undetermined damages against Bramalea California, a subsidiary of the Toronto-based home building company.

The homeowners live in a Mission Viejo neighborhood that includes Corsica Road, which sits atop a valley that leads to the nearby O’Neill Regional Park. Homeowners allege that when they bought the houses in 1990, Bramalea officials said that the nearby valley “was a protected area that could never be touched,” according to Scott O’Neill, one of the homeowners.

Bramalea executives were not available for comment Monday, according to a company spokeswoman.

O’Neill said that most homeowners moved into their homes, which sold for $300,000 or more, fully expecting that the nearby valley would remain pristine. Bramalea “would have gotten zero purchases had anyone known a mining operation was going there,” O’Neill said.

The gravel-mining operation has yet to move into the valley near the homeowners. Homeowners do not know when the gravel-mining project might start. A spokesman for Mission Viejo Materials Co., which would operate the mine, could not be reached Monday for comment.

But owners fear that the valley, “which now has a beautiful stream, live oaks and elders, will be turned into a moonscape” if the gravel-mining operation proceeds.