Saddleback OKd for Development

Capping 24 years of bitter disputes, the Orange County Board of Supervisors took less than an hour Tuesday to approve development of Saddleback Meadows, a historic ranching site at the doorstep of the Cleveland National Forest.

On a 3-1 vote, with Supervisor Jim Silva recusing himself, the board approved construction of 283 single-family homes on the 230-acre site, with 70% set aside as open space.

“At some point in time, a private property owner has the right to reasonably develop private property.... Today is the day, in my opinion,” said Supervisor Todd Spitzer, whose district includes the site nestled between two monasteries and other housing developments off El Toro and Live Oak Canyon roads at the county’s rural eastern edge.

“We’re elated,” said Frank Elfend, an Orange County-based consultant who has represented would-be developers of Saddleback Meadows since 1994, including the current owner, California Quartet of Sacramento.

A last-minute condition was tucked into the approvals, requiring $25 million in insurance and a 100% performance liability bond against possible damage to St. Michael’s Abbey and other neighbors because of grading that will be required to stabilize the steep, landslide-prone site.

Opponents criticized the decision and vowed to file a legal appeal within 30 days. They contend that water-quality concerns and an environmentally superior alternative allowing construction of a smaller number of homes had been ignored.

“It is a fraud and a deceit,” said Ed Connor, an attorney representing the Hindu-affiliated Ramakrishna Monastery. “It is a continuing mystery to me why the county feels so beholden to an absentee owner we have never seen.”

Connor said the vote could result in the county losing 240 acres of parkland that had been deeded to O’Neill Regional Park by the Vedanta Society of Southern California, which runs the monastery. He said a condition of the gift was that the monastery not be disturbed by development.

“I swear to you ... we will take that land back,” Connor told the board before the vote.

Brian Murphy, spokesman for the county planning and development services department, said that “if that’s the move he wishes to make, that’s his prerogative.... Let’s wait till things calm down and see what happens.”

The vote came at the end of an uncharacteristically brief public hearing, given the years of contentious debate over the project. Just four opponents spoke, in contrast to past meetings when dozens packed hearing rooms.

Spitzer led Tuesday’s vote, joined by Supervisors Cynthia P. Coad and Charles Smith. Supervisor Tom Wilson voted against it, citing continuing concerns over polluted storm water runoff into Aliso Creek and other environmental issues. Silva left before the public hearing began, citing “a perceived conflict of interest.”

One Official Abstained

Silva has regularly abstained from votes on the project since Aradi Inc., a former owner of the site that has the same managing partner as California Quartet, was fined $14,000 for allegedly laundering political contributions to Silva through its employees.

The company did not admit guilt, but paid the fines. Silva was not charged with wrongdoing and has never been barred from voting on the project.

Developers have fought since the 1970s to build on Saddleback Meadows.

One previous owner went bankrupt, and negotiations to buy the land as open space fell apart amid finger-pointing.

Spitzer alluded to those negotiations Tuesday, saying his first choice would have been to have the land preserved, but that he had been “frustrated” when good-faith efforts by the landowner had been repeatedly rejected by opponents.

Connor said it was the developer that walked away from an agreed-upon deal that would have given the company $5.2 million in private and public funds and allowed construction of 70 homes on 44 acres of stable ridge land.

He said that after agreeing to the proposal, the developer suddenly said about 75 acres would need to be graded, destroying mature live oaks, pristine canyons and other unique biological resources.

He said the Ramakrishna monks also would have been forced to look at a 5-foot-high concrete wall.

Jason Grange, a spokesman for California Quartet, said Connor’s account of the failed negotiations was “very disingenuous.”

“[Connor’s] reason for not coming up with the money is because you will have to grade an area larger than the specific homes. Well, that’s true for every home.... You have to pick up dirt beyond the specific parameters of where the homes would actually go; you have to do land stabilization,” Grange said. “As for the issue concerning the concrete wall, I have no idea what he’s talking about.”

Connor said county officials have ignored a lower-density proposal that would net the developer up to $20 million, while leaving intact huge stands of trees, vernal pools that are home to half of the county’s endangered Riverside fairy shrimp population, and pristine canyons.

Spitzer and Grange said that the alternative had been considered but was rejected as unfeasible.

In addition to lawyers for the monasteries, longtime area residents pleaded with supervisors not to approve the development, saying it would wreck the rural ambience.

“Ten years from now, when you look out over the 120-foot-high manufactured slopes required to build these homes ... I wonder if you will feel you have preserved the rural character of the area,” said Ray Chandos, a longtime Trabuco Canyon resident.

Federal and state regulators have consistently voiced opposition to the development, saying it would destroy a crucial wildlife corridor between the county’s central coast and proposed nature preserves in South County.