Residents Reach a Verdict

Does Shangri-La need a courthouse?

Not if you ask about 2,000 Rancho Santa Margarita homeowners living near a proposed site for a new South County courthouse.

Once labeled a paradise by a national TV news magazine, Rancho Santa Margarita is on the county’s short list for an $82-million, 19-courtroom complex.

It may not be surprising that residents living near the proposed municipal courthouse oppose the prospect of suspected criminals being bused to their bucolic, mountain-view community. But the speed in which the neighborhood has gathered its opposition has even surprised the residents here.

“At first we were in shock that the county would consider a plan that is so short-sighted,” said resident Linda Lally, a member of Citizens for a Safe Rancho Santa Margarita. “But then I was amazed at how vehemently people have responded and how quickly we were able to organize.”

The group recently gathered 2,200 signatures in the hopes of persuading county officials to keep the courthouse out of their neighborhood. Meetings on the issue have drawn 200 to 300 residents. From the ranks of homeowners stepped architects, who are reviewing the county’s plans, and a Caltrans media officer who is analyzing traffic projections.

“There is a beautiful potential for this community, but I don’t think this [courthouse] is what the developer had in mind when Rancho Santa Margarita was planned,” said group member Chip Furniss.

Amid the debate, there is no dispute that South County needs a bigger courthouse.

“The courthouse we have [in Laguna Niguel] was built in the late ‘60s, when South Orange County had a population of 150,000,” Municipal Judge Carl Biggs said. “We now serve over 500,000 people.”

Last year, the county started the search for a new courthouse site, identifying two possible locations in Rancho Santa Margarita and one in the proposed Ladera planned community to the south.

The county is awaiting an offer from Ladera developers over an undeveloped parcel. Property owners of a vacant site in Rancho Santa Margarita at Antonio Parkway and the Foothill Transportation Corridor say they have yet to hold serious discussions with the county.

The third site, an office complex formerly occupied by Lockheed Martin at Avenidas Empresa and Banderas, is the one drawing all the controversy.

Although surrounded by other industrial buildings, the former aerospace complex is a few hundred yards from a large group of neighborhoods wrapped around the Tijeras Creek Golf Club in the southwest tip of Rancho Santa Margarita.

Homeowners point to the building’s close proximity to Arroyo Vista Elementary School and a park.

“Our major concern is really the criminal element this courthouse will bring,” said neighborhood resident Albert Miranda.

Residents also fear the friends and family of suspects coming to attend hearings at the courthouse, said Miranda.

County officials say residents shouldn’t worry about an increase in crime.

Fifth District Supervisor Tom Wilson said his staff reviewed crime statistics around the Laguna Niguel courthouse and found only a handful of minor offenses.

“I tried to give them some history as to what kind of cases will be tried in Municipal Court,” said Wilson, who spoke to the neighborhood group last month. “Most of the people they will see there will be friends and neighbors from south of the El Toro Y.”

Biggs agreed that most of the defendants would be from South County, an area with comparatively few gangs and a low rate of serious violent crimes.

“I’ve been in this court for a year, and I haven’t gotten a murder case yet,” Biggs said.

Of the 116,000 cases filed last year in the South County system (operating out of buildings in Laguna Niguel and Laguna Hills), about 79% involved traffic infractions, according to court figures. About 1% of the filings were felony cases, the vast majority involving drug possession charges, Biggs said.

At a Municipal Court, misdemeanors, arraignments and preliminary hearings for felonies are held before being transferred for trial in Superior Court in Santa Ana.

But residents say they fear Superior Court trials could be held in the courthouse, especially with a proposed county maximum-security prison at James A. Musick Branch Jail, just a few miles down the toll road in Irvine.

“If we have a 12,000-bed prison [built at Musick], we could have a Superior Court here or handle a number of Superior Court cases,” said opposition group member Dan Figueroa.

Regardless of how the issue turns out, residents say they know their neighbors even a bit better than they did before.

“I’m proud of my neighbors,” Furniss said. “I think we’ve found a whole new horizon of community involvement that we have to have if we are going to help the county understand what our needs are.”

8 NEIGHBORHOODS /Tijeras Creek Golf Club

Bounded by: Santa Margarita Parkway on the north, Tijeras Creek off Antonio Parkway on the south, O’Neill Regional Park on the west, Antonio Parkway on the east

Population: About 2,700 homes

Hot topic: Whether a vacant office building at Avenidas Empressa and Banderas should be used for a South County courthouse