County Should Obey Law in Building Camp

Re “Ruling May Kill Detention Camp,” Aug. 17:

The Times’ recent coverage of the lawsuit heard in a San Diego County court concerning the Rancho Potrero Leadership Academy project states that local residents oppose the project because it would “increase traffic and harm the rustic surroundings.”

However, the real gist of the lawsuit was that the county of Orange had consistently violated the law in its attempts to proceed with this project. Judge Lisa Guy-Schall found that not only was the environmental impact report inadequate, but the public had not been given proper notice under the California Environmental Quality Act and that the Orange County Board of Supervisors’ decision to amend the Foothill Trabuco Specific Plan was illegal, arbitrary and capricious.

If county staff wants to set an example for their incarcerated Probation Department juveniles, I suggest that they should obey the state and local laws themselves when building and managing their detention facilities. Anything less is not only an affront to the citizens they serve, but according to Guy-Schall, it is illegal and unacceptable.

Mike Boeck

Silverado Canyon

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Re “Bring Peace to Land Battle,” Aug. 18:

As noted in your recent articles and today’s editorial, our battle to stop the proposed jail facility in Arroyo Trabuco was the opening firefight of an environmental war in the foothills. There is the 299-home Saddleback Meadows development plus another subdivision of 180 homes in the Cook’s Corners area. A 30-acre strip mall with a 12-pump gas station across from Cook’s Corners is moving forward.

The jail was planned near the upper reaches of Trabuco Creek, while the other projects are at the headlands of Aliso Creek, with a portion of the runoff going to Trabuco Creek. If the California Environmental Quality Act adjudication of Aug. 16, in essence overturning the county’s own environmental impact report, is applied to these subdivisions, they will further degrade the environment and should not be built.

These 479 additional homes and the strip mall will add toxic contaminants to acknowledged polluted watercourses, and cumulatively become a clear violation of the new storm water permit and the Clean Water Act. Too often, environmentalists are seen as mere obstructionists or NIMBY protesters, when in fact we are protectors of a forward-thinking planning process.

We must incur tremendous legal debts and engage our county in protracted litigious battles on a piecemeal, site-by-site basis. The county should save the taxpayers further legal fees and buy the land or perhaps the development rights to achieve a “win-win” for the open-space inheritance of its own residents’ children. As your editorial pointed out, these areas are “backwoods highways” for wildlife and have intrinsic aesthetic value as well. “Wilderness for its own sake,” as Arne Naess said.

Roger von Butow

Clean Water Now! Coalition &

South Orange County

Watershed Conservancy