Ruling May Kill Detention Camp

A judge on Friday threw out Orange County’s plans to expand a Trabuco Canyon detention center for youthful offenders, dealing the project what county officials said could be a fatal blow.

The county must complete the $18-million facility by the end of 2003 or lose an $8.4-million state grant. Officials doubt they can make the deadline.

If the judge’s ruling stands, “we are going to have to give back the grant money,” said Thomas G. Wright, the county’s chief deputy probation officer. “We won’t be able to build it.”

To ease overcrowding at youth detention facilities, the county wants to build the 90-bed Rancho Potrero Leadership Academy on property adjacent to the existing 64-bed Joplin Youth Center.

Residents who live around the Trabuco Canyon site strongly oppose the project, fearing it would increase traffic and harm the rustic surroundings.

Supervisors last year approved an environmental impact report for the leadership academy, which would house youths accused of low-level crimes who officials believe could benefit from a rural setting. Residents then filed suit.

San Diego Superior Court Judge Lisa Guy-Schall ruled Friday that the environmental impact report was inadequate because the project was not in keeping with planning regulations for the area. The case had been transferred to neutral San Diego County’s jurisdiction.

“We have a beautiful area to preserve, and there are laws in place to preserve it,” said Richard Gomez, a spokesman for the Saddleback Canyons Conservancy, which filed the lawsuit along with the Rural Canyons Conservation Fund.

“We’re happy because the integrity of an area protected by law is maintained,” Gomez said.

Residents included among their court filings photos obtained by a remote-controlled model airplane with a 35-millimeter camera strapped to it. The photos showed what residents said was illegal grading done by the county without proper permits.

The county argued the grading was for maintenance at Joplin and unrelated to the academy project. But the judge rejected that claim, finding that maintenance and construction projects were “significantly similar.”

County officials said they will meet early next week with their attorney to decide the next move.

Wright said the county could return to the planning stage, but that would mean months in delays.

“We would have to build the academy in less than a year, and that can’t be done,” Wright said.

County officials said there is a strong need for more beds at juvenile detention facilities.

The Probation Department estimates that it will require nearly 300 additional “nonsecure” beds like those at Joplin by 2005 and about 200 additional “secure” beds like those at Juvenile Hall in Orange.

If the Joplin expansion is scrapped, “we might be faced with finding another way to make more beds,” Wright said.