Developer’s Wild Tale Goes On

The controversial Saddleback Meadows project, thought dead because of a court decision last year, breathed new life last week when county officials agreed to reconsider plans to build 299 homes in the pristine wilderness area.

First appearing on the Board of Supervisors agenda in 1978, the project was approved in 1980 on a 3-2 vote for 705 mobile homes. The Trabuco Canyon development has been mired in controversy ever since.

In 1996, developer Aradi Inc. announced that the company would build 299 homes instead, and in 1998 the board approved an environmental report on a 2-2 vote--but for the original 705 mobile homes. Last year, an appellate court ruled that the tie vote was invalid.

Now, Orange County officials have agreed to review the report again; however, a hearing set for last Wednesday was rescheduled for the summer. The parties involved said the postponement was to give state and federal officials and private landowners time to raise money to purchase the property to maintain it as open space.

Officials said that the California Department of Fish and Game is leading an effort to buy the 222 acres owned by Aradi. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has joined the state agency, as have the Ramakrishna Monastery and St. Michael’s Abbey, whose properties border the proposed development.

“We’re looking at what sources of funding there may be. A lot of people would like to see that property not developed,” said Bill Tippets, deputy regional manager of the Department of Fish and Game.

David Zoutendyk, a Fish and Wildlife Service biologist, said federal officials are having the property appraised.

“This land is important because it’s the last linkage” between nature preserves in central and southern Orange County, Zoutendyk said. “It would connect Whiting Ranch Wilderness Park and O’Neill Regional Park, providing a corridor for deer, bobcats, birds and other animals.”

Jason Grange, spokesman for the developer, said the company will consider a purchase offer, but he said two previous attempts by the county and the abbey in 1998 to buy all or part of the property fell apart.

“We had an agreement, but the abbey couldn’t come up with the money. We know about the current attempt to buy the property, but we’re also going to continue with a contingency plan for the 299-home complex,” Grange said.

Attorney Ed Connor, who represents Ramakrishna Monastery, countered that the project cannot continue unless a new environmental report is drafted for 299 homes. It was Connor who persuaded the court to invalidate the board’s approval of the report.

“In February 2000, the judge directed the county to set aside approval for the project and suspend all planning activity until a new environmental report is prepared,” he said.

Superior Court Judge Robert E. Thomas ruled that the Board of Supervisors and county Planning Commission had “to set aside their . . . respective determinations that the final environmental impact report and addendum were adequate.” He also ruled that the board “never validly certified” the report.

But Grange and county Planning and Services Department spokesman Josh McDonnell said that a subsequent appellate court ruling narrowed the issue solely to the tie vote by the supervisors that validated the report.

“The appellate court ruled that a 2-to-2 vote did not certify the environmental report,” McDonnell said. “The ruling also directed that all subsequent approvals [by county officials] be set aside.”

While the 19-page opinion by the California 4th District Court of Appeal addressed only the validity of the tie vote, the justices also upheld Thomas’ ruling that the environmental report adopted by the board on a 2-2 vote did not cover Aradi’s proposal to build 299 homes.

The appellate court’s findings note that the “county planning commission certified an environmental impact report for a 705-unit housing development in Trabuco Canyon,” not for 299 homes.

“The appellate court is saying that there never was an environmental report done for 299 homes. That’s been our position all along,” Connor said.

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Still, Grange said the appellate ruling was a victory for Aradi.

“The court didn’t find the environmental report inadequate, only that the supervisors couldn’t certify it with a 2-to-2 vote. The court said a tie vote wouldn’t do it,” Grange said.

He said the project “has been redefined and revised” for the board’s and Planning Commission’s study.

Grange said the revisions include setting aside 157 of the 222 acres as open space, but Aradi is still committed to building 299 homes on the site.

Supervisor Todd Spitzer, whose district includes Saddleback Meadows, did not respond to repeated inquiries about his position on the project. Instead, staff members offered to explain his position in off-the-record interviews. He voted for it in 1998.

However, a tie vote may be all that the developer and conservationists get as long as Supervisor Jim Silva is on the board. Silva has abstained from voting on the project because Aradi was fined $14,000 in 1996 for laundering contributions to his campaign.

Saddleback Meadows has been a source of controversy as early as 1980, when supervisors gave it preliminary approval despite objections from county planners and the grand jury because of grading problems. Sixteen years later, officials estimated it would take 13 months of grading and the removal of 500,000 truckloads of dirt before construction could begin.

In 1982, then-Supervisor Bruce Nestande took the unusual step of writing letters to a bank to help then-owner G. Grafton Worthington obtain a $2.4-million loan to develop the property. The project, which at the time called for 705 mobile homes, was still being reviewed by county officials when Nestande acted.

The loan was never repaid, and the owner filed for bankruptcy.

Aradi bought the property out of bankruptcy in 1993 and obtained a permit to build the mobile home park but later decided to build homes instead.

Because of potential grading costs and money spent by Aradi on lawyers, lobbyists, hydrologists, soil experts and an environmental study, then-Supervisor William G. Steiner said in 1996 that Aradi needed to build at least 300 homes to turn a profit. The developer planned to construct 318.

The county’s planning staff recommended a maximum of 299 homes, but a county planning commissioner said only 260 could be built. The result was that in July 1996, the county Planning Commission handed the project to the Board of Supervisors without a recommendation--uncorking another controversy.

Steiner, a supporter of the project, was accused of a conflict of interest for accepting a $5,000 consultant fee from an Aradi lobbyist. Steiner was cleared of wrongdoing and voted for the development.

Silva was the center of another controversy when it was revealed that VerLyn Jensen, a lobbyist for St. Michael’s Abbey in opposition to the project, sent out a fund-raising letter for Silva, encouraging contributors to pressure him to vote against Saddleback Meadows. Jensen was a member of a host committee to raise funds for Silva, after it was revealed that Aradi had made illegal contributions to Silva.

The fund-raising letter appeared a few months after Aradi had been fined for making illegal contributions to Silva. The supervisor decided to abstain from voting on the issue.

Jensen, who some consider the most savvy political insider in the county, said at the time: “I’m raising money for Jim Silva legally. [Aradi] laundered their contribution and got fined.”

He also admitted to contributing to Steiner’s campaign that year, even though he called Steiner “a cheerleader” for Saddleback Meadows at a Planning Commission hearing.

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Those were not the only intrigues. At the same time, Katherine Swiss, a former Miss Texas who profited from property development in that state, was quietly working with the Norbertine priests from St. Michael’s Abbey to derail the project.

In 1993, Aradi hired a private detective to investigate Swiss and her finances when she attempted to outbid the developer for the sewer and water rights for the property at the bankruptcy sale.

Aradi, which had offered $35,000 for the rights, was forced to pay $100,000 instead.

Swiss said back then she would have acquired the rights, but “$90,000 was all the money I had with me at the time.”

Swiss, who is still helping the abbey, could not be reached for comment. Jensen, who is still representing the abbey, declined to comment.

But Tippets, Grange and others familiar with the project said Swiss is helping the abbey raise funds to help conservationists purchase the property from Aradi.

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Development Talks

Saddleback Meadows, a proposed housing project that’s been around since 1978, got a new lease on life when county officials agreed to restudy the development. Opponents thought that a court ruling had effectively killed it last year.