Open Space in Project Criticized

At first glance, Saddleback Meadows looks like a cookie-cutter version of many other projects springing up in the Orange County foothills. It’s to be a gated community of single-family homes grouped around cul-de-sacs in the Trabuco Canyon area, with price tags of $300,000 and up.

But a unique and highly contentious feature can be found in one corner of the project map: a 500-foot gap between house lots labeled a “wildlife corridor,” through which rare birds and other wild creatures would travel.

And on the eve of a vote Tuesday on the project by the Board of Supervisors, concerns have escalated as to whether that corridor is wide enough to serve as the crucial link for a much-hailed county network of wildlife preserves.

While county planners appear satisfied, state and federal regulators continue to raise concerns that the corridor is flawed. In fact, the state Department of Fish and Game plans to provide information to supervisors Tuesday, said department official Bill Tippets.

“It’s a big deal. It’s a critical linkage area.” added biologist John Bradley of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

In fact, Saddleback Meadows promises to be a litmus test of a nationally touted program intended to help stave off extinction for Orange County’s rare plants and animals. That program, launched by Gov. Pete Wilson with the support of U.S. Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt, has already produced a sprawling, 37,000-acre preserve in the county’s central and coastal areas, and a second preserve in South County is planned.

A key link between the two reserves: the picturesque wilds of Saddleback Meadows, flanked by two religious centers and hills rich with native plants and animals. And with supervisors poised to approve the housing project on 222 acres, some state and federal regulators worry that it will block the flow of wildlife.

Some regulators and environmentalists fear that if rare songbirds and other animals cannot travel between the two reserves, the costly and complex Natural Community Conservation Plan reserve program blessed by Babbitt and Wilson could be derailed. Instead of a network of reserves, the county could have two reserve “islands,” with encroaching suburbanization threatening the future of rare wildlife.

County planning administrator Tim Neely defends the proposed link.

“Obviously a wider corridor would be preferable, but this project has a long and complicated history. And, in light of that history, I’m not sure that this proposed corridor is unreasonable,” Neely said.

“It’s hard for me to imagine this is so terrible in light of all the work we’ve done,” said Pike Oliver, a principal with Newport Beach-based TPG Management Inc., which is managing the project for landowner California Quartet. As for the concerns of state and federal regulators, Oliver said, “I’ve never seen an agency that hasn’t asked for more.”

The debate over Saddleback Meadows stretches back two decades, with plans taking many forms, from a 318-home project to a cluster of 705 mobile homes.

Opponents include environmental groups and the neighboring St. Michael’s Abbey and the Ramakrishna monastery. The abbey is owned by the Norbertine Fathers of Orange, a Catholic religious order, while the Ramakrishnas are an independent faith tied to Hinduism.

The two religious centers have retained attorney Edmond Connor, who heads the county Bar Assn., and have spent months attempting to craft a compromise. One plan calls for a conservancy to buy 178 acres of the California Quartet property to preserve it for open space.

The purchase would be financed with $1.5 million from the county and $3.7 million from the Saddleback Meadows Land Conservancy, formed by the Norbertine fathers and benefactor Kathryn Swiss, Connor said. The developer could then build homes on the remaining 44 acres.

But the negotiations, assisted by Supervisor Todd Spitzer, apparently ran aground, although talks reportedly will continue today. The 299-home project, meanwhile, was approved 4-1 on Oct. 7 by the county Planning Commission.

“The story here is that the county is processing this thing at breakneck speed,” Connor said.

A local review board, in fact, has asked the supervisors to postpone action because it lacked time to study it properly. Based on the information at hand, the Foothill Trabuco Specific Plan Review Board voted 4 to 0 with one abstention to oppose the project.

But others say the county has had ample time for study.

“It’s time for the county to decide what it wants--to at least decide the outside of what’s going to happen on this property,” said Oliver with the firm managing the project.

“I believe we’ve done what we can do within the limits of our discretion to advance an alternative that our biologist has advised us satisfies reserve design requirements,” said Neely at the county.

Yet, state and federal officials have failed to reconcile their differences with the county over the project’s effects on wildlife.

In a joint Aug. 11 letter to county supervisors, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the state Department of Fish and Game outline what they term “significant biological issues related to the project site.”

For instance, the federally endangered Riverside fairy shrimp can be found in at least seven wetlands on the property, the letter states. The rare cactus wren has been found on site, with the threatened California gnatcatcher found nearby.

A 299-home project poses “a significant threat” to the existing habitat connection, the letter states. It asks the board to consider an alternative that would allow development “while maintaining an essential biological connection” between the two reserve areas.

But in an Oct. 19 memorandum, Neely reported that a biologist with Dudek and Associates, which works for the county and South County landowners, had concluded that with proper replanting of vegetation, the proposed corridor would allow movement of birds and small mammals. Neely recommends the county conclude that the project “will not preclude or prevent the preparation” of a South County preserve.

That conclusion is “premature,” said Bradley at Fish and Wildlife. “We haven’t gotten far enough along on the analysis of reserve designs.” And environmentalist Pete DeSimone goes even further.

“If the 299 homes go in, and the wildlife movement area is impacted to the extent we expect,” DeSimone said, “then our ability to come up with a viable [South County preserve] is severely compromised, if not impossible.”

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How Much Is Enough?

The Saddleback Meadows community in the Trabuco Canyon area wuld include a 500-foot gap between homes to be set aside as a wildlife corridor.