Expansion OKd for Youth Facility

After a two-year delay, a new 90-bed detention facility for boys and girls in Orange County’s rural Trabuco Canyon won approval Tuesday from the Board of Supervisors, though some residents said they may sue to block it.

The board voted unanimously for the county Probation Department’s $17-million expansion of Joplin Youth Center, saying the need for more juvenile beds outweighs residents’ objections that the project is poorly planned, would damage the environment and is too costly.

Supervisor Jim Silva said the facility “will pay for itself by turning lives around.”

Chief Probation Officer Stephanie W. Lewis said the facility will offer the same programs for boys and girls that Joplin now has for boys only. Joplin youths attend academic classes Mondays through Fridays and can study landscaping, culinary arts and other vocational subjects.

By offering an alternative to Juvenile Hall, Lewis said, the new Rancho Potrero Leadership Academy will give youths in disadvantaged neighborhoods a second chance in a rural setting.

“It helps them clear their heads to make better decisions,” Lewis said, adding that Juvenile Hall in Orange is overcrowded because the county lacks enough space at Joplin.

Like Joplin, the academy is intended to build character in nonviolent offenders by removing them from gang influence and putting them in a wilderness environment. The academy would consist of eight one-story buildings surrounding a courtyard. It would house 30 girls and 60 boys, ages 14 to 17, and be a short distance from but within the grounds of the 338-acre Joplin Youth Center.

Based on projections, the Probation Department will need 726 “secure” beds in a locked facility with guards, such as Juvenile Hall, by 2005 but has only 538 now. The department projects a need for 605 non-secure beds such as those at Joplin by 2005; it has only 314 now, a department spokesman said.

Officials said they cannot delay construction because they would miss a 2003 deadline set by the state Board of Corrections, which is providing $8.4 million for the project.

Residents fighting the facility said they already put up with Joplin, a 64-bed residential treatment camp for boys. They said youths frequently run away from the camp and into their neighborhood.

“In Trabuco Canyon, we’re tired of being the county’s broom closet,” resident Elsie Addington said. “It seems other communities and the county put things here that other communities don’t want.”

The academy would only add to those concerns while forcing residents, especially neighborhood youngsters on horseback, to maneuver around heavy construction trucks during the construction, some people told supervisors. Others said the projected $17-million price is exorbitant, costing taxpayers more than $200,000 per bed.

Shelly Black said she and some neighbors are willing to go to court to stop the expansion. “We have 30 days in which to file a lawsuit, and we will,” she said.

Planning for the expansion started in 1999, but the project was withdrawn a year ago after neighborhood objections that construction traffic along 1 1/2-mile-long Rose Canyon Road would create hazards for drivers, hikers and equestrians.

The proposal was reintroduced to the county Planning Commission earlier this year after being revised to include construction of a new access road to bypass Rose Canyon. As proposed, the new road would cross private land and require the county to purchase the access route as well as build it, adding $5 million in costs to the overall project.

Supervisor Todd Spitzer, whose district includes Joplin, said he served as a liaison between the community and the county, especially in negotiations for the access road and in last-minute negotiations to address concerns such as traffic congestion in nearby Rancho Santa Margarita.