Youth Center in Trabuco Gets a Boost

Over the objections of Trabuco Canyon residents, county supervisors Tuesday began the process that may lead to a new access road into Joplin Youth Center and the possibility that a much-debated second youth facility known as Potrero Leadership Academy will be built.

Residents have fought the proposed academy, saying its construction and the traffic it would bring could endanger hikers, horseback riders and children who play along narrow Rose Canyon Road.

They also have called the academy too expensive: At an estimated $200,000 per bed, they say it would be one of the costliest youth facilities in the nation.

Tuesday’s unanimous board action allows the county to pursue an amendment to the local specific plan--the master plan for the area--authorizing the Probation Department to acquire land for the secondary road to Joplin.

“I’m confused with the amendment,” Trabuco resident James Iacono told supervisors. “Because there’s no mention of Potrero Academy. I’m wondering why this is moving forward.”

After the vote, Iacono and other residents called Tuesday’s action a smoke screen.

“They’re trying to acquire the property for the road and make it part of Joplin’s so-called zoning, therefore making it exempt from the specific plan,” he said.

Spitzer Believes New Road Is Needed

Supervisor Todd Spitzer, whose district includes the proposed academy, said the county’s planning efforts for the proposed academy have been “abysmal.” But he supported the action because he believes more youth beds are needed.

“This is nothing more than allowing your concerns to be heard,” Spitzer told residents. “But I was adamant that the county needed to build another road out there. We’re trying to work out all the issues, though they are complex.”

The county’s plan for the new road would route the trucks and other heavy machinery up a secondary path that would skirt the canyon community, but approvals for rights of way, construction and funding are not yet certain.

“I support Potrero, and I will do everything I can so residents won’t feel the impacts of the project,” Spitzer said after the meeting.

He said he won two points of accommodation recently from the county: getting support for the new access road, so residents will not be affected by additional traffic on Rose Canyon Drive, and getting the assurance that a fence would be built around the proposed academy.

County probation officials, who already operate the 64-bed Joplin Youth Center on a 388-acre site, say the $13.5-million Potrero Academy is needed to meet a projected demand for more than 500 beds in the juvenile justice system by 2005. Costs for the road would add $4 million to $5 million to the facility’s price tag.

But about two months ago, Probation Department officials withdrew the proposed 90-bed academy from consideration by the county Planning Commission. Planners felt its environmental impact report was inadequate because it did not address traffic problems and other concerns raised by residents.

Acting Chief Probation Officer Stephanie W. Lewis said at the meeting that the delay does not mean the project is dead. Planning continues, she said, and she hopes the department will soon resubmit the environmental report to the Planning Commission for approval.

Probation officials have acknowledged that the department has a December 2003 deadline to finish the academy or it may lose $8.4 million in state funding.

Resident Donald Segien said he and others were not notified by the county of Tuesday’s meeting, but instead saw it on the board agenda on Monday.

“I certainly would want a public hearing so people most affected by this can have an opportunity to speak on it,” Segien said.

Other residents urged the county to have the environmental impact report on Potrero Academy approved by the Board of Supervisors before any changes are made to the specific plan.

Thomas B. Mathews, director of county planning and development, whose department has been criticized for its part in the planning process, said the board did not approve a zone change.

“This was not a hearing, just the initiation of a zone change to a specific plan,” he said.

Residents have maintained that the specific plan adopted by the board in 1991 did not allow the addition of an academy to the Joplin site. “We’re making sure that everyone understands the process,” Mathews said.