Environment |

Residents protest Irvine Company plan to build 1,180 houses in wildlife corridor

Bobcats, mountain lions, deer, foxes and other local wildlife all make regular appearances on trail cameras along the perimeter of 400 largely undeveloped acres that separate Irvine and Peters Canyon regional parks in the rural foothills of east Orange.

The animals use the V-shaped corridor to cross between the two parks and into the nearby Santa Ana Mountains during their increasingly competitive search for food, mates and territory to call home, according to Joel Robinson, an Orange native who heads up the nonprofit Naturalist for You.

White-tailed kites also forage for rodents over the 400 acres, Robinson said, while meadowlarks, greater roadrunners, California quail and other bird species flock to level grasslands that already face climate change-fueled threats of wildfire.

Those are some of the reasons Robinson and nearly 7,000 other area residents have signed a petition in recent weeks opposing Irvine Company’s long discussed and now looming plan to turn those 400 acres into a 1,180-home community called Orange Heights.

 

Opponents argue that Orange Heights — with its single-family homes that eliminate open space, require commutes and expose residents to high fire risks — illustrates the type of community we should no longer be building in the face of global warming, biodiversity and affordability crises.

“We cannot afford to lose more of our rural, wild and scenic open space to inappropriate urban sprawl,” David Keen wrote as he signed the No Orange Heights petition in late November.

But others are OK with the development, citing concessions made by Irvine Company since the project was first discussed 35 years ago.

Orange Mayor Dan Slater, who counts himself an environmentalist, said in a perfect world there’d be no development in east Orange. But, he argued, “that’s just not realistic.” And he credits activists with ensuring that no development will happen east of the 241 toll road.

“I feel that we came out the winners and the issue is settled,” Slater said. “It’s time to put down the pitchforks and torches and accept what was a reasonable agreement.”

As far as Irvine Company is concerned, nearly everything is in place to move forward with a scaled-down version of the last housing project in this area. The company said in a written statement that its staff is working with Caltrans to finalize transportation plans for the new community, which will clear the way for construction to start “in the coming months.”

“Orange Heights is the result of collaboration with the community and reflects our commitment to long-term master planning where balanced communities are surrounded by tens of thousands of acres of preserved natural lands,” Jeff Davis, senior vice president for Irvine Company, said in a statement.

With survey markers at the site fading in the sun after several false starts for this project, opponents still are holding out hope that Irvine Company Chair Donald Bren will choose to preserve these final 400 acres, as the wealthiest developer in the nation has done with 57,500 other acres throughout Orange County. Otherwise they’re asking the Orange City Council to require the company to complete an updated environmental impact report for the development.

Short of those moves, Robinson said the project is likely to wind up in court again.

Plans to build homes in the area — and protests over those plans — have been in the works since 1989.

Irvine Company originally aimed to develop 12,000 homes and commercial space on 6,800 acres that stretched well past Irvine Lake. But the recession of the early ’90s coupled with pushback from area residents and environmental groups slowed that version of the project.

In 2005, the company got approval from the city of Orange to build 4,100 homes on 1,800 of those acres in a community then called Santiago Heights II. Locals fought hard against the project at the time, while the Sierra Club tried without success to block the development in court over allegations of a flawed and incomplete environmental impact report. But just as that lawsuit wrapped up, in 2008, the housing market collapsed and construction was delayed again.

In 2014, Bren opted to give the county 1,400 acres of that project site, east of the 241 toll road and along the southeastern shore of Irvine Lake, for use as permanent open space. All told, Irvine Company has dedicated 60% of the 93,000 acres it originally owned in the county as open space — something Robinson said he and fellow environmentalists are “eternally grateful for.”

Still, there’s the matter of the 400 acres bordered by the 241/261 toll roads to the east and Jamboree Road to the west.

Santiago Canyon Road bisects the property but otherwise it’s open space. And Robinson said many people he’s talked with, who live nearby or make use of Irvine and Peters Canyon regional parks, assume that the parcel connecting those two parks would always remain undeveloped.

“Most people don’t know about this project,” he said. “Once they find out, then they’re upset and don’t want it to happen.”

That was the case for Megan “Moe” Morelock, of Orange, who only recently learned about the Orange Heights proposal. Morelock, 42, who works backstage at Disneyland and is an “obsessed naturalist” in her free time, said she’s particularly concerned about fire risks in the area, with only one main road in and out of the community. She’s also worried about eliminating this wildlife corridor and habitat.

One of Orange County’s most famous mountain lions regularly crosses the 400-acre parcel, according to data from Winston Vickers, a wildlife veterinarian who heads up the California Mountain Lion Project at UC Davis Wildlife Health Center. The collared cougar known as M317 ran into an Irvine office building a couple years ago before being relocated to the mountains. Now, as part of the animal’s large territory, Vickers said M317 uses that parcel to get from areas as far north as Chino Hills State Park all the way down to Whiting Ranch Wilderness Park.

If homes are built on the plot, Vickers said, “it would hinder him, and he is used to going through there.” But Vickers added that M317, in particular, also appears highly adaptable, so he’s confident the cougar would find alternate pathways.

Other animals, with smaller territories or more limited options for food, might not be so lucky, Robinson said.

“We’re creating a refugee crisis for animals.”

All of those factors were taken into consideration when the project was approved, argued Slater, who’s a real estate agent by day. And while he acknowledged wildlife would be affected by the development, Slater said he hadn’t heard any convincing arguments about significant changes since the project was approved.

But opponents — including the Sierra Club, which has dubbed the project “Heights of Folly” — say the environmental impact report used for the 2005 approval was flawed to begin with. (The nonprofit lost that argument in court 15 years ago.) And they argue both the project and surrounding conditions have changed in recent years, including the escalating risk of wildfire.

The Canyon 2 fire burned through the area in 2017, triggering evacuations and destroying 25 structures. Since then, Robinson noted, it’s become increasingly pricey and challenging for homeowners who live in areas with high fire risk to insure their homes.

The California Cultural Resource Preservation Alliance, an Irvine-based nonprofit, also recently noted that there are six archaeological sites on the 400-acre property, two of which are historic. While it appears those sites have already been affected by development in the area, Patricia Martz, president of the organization, said there’s a high potential for buried materials to still be on the site.

An estimated 90% of archaeological sites in Orange County have been destroyed to make way for development, Martz said. She said that makes the remaining sites of “utmost importance,” since they’re the only tangible remains of more than 10,000 years of local history from the Juaneño/Acjachemen and Gabrielino/Tongva tribes.

Opponents argue that such discoveries and changes justify the city of Orange requiring a new environmental review for the project. But Slater said he’s not convinced.

“I don’t know that we have any ground to stand on legally,” he said.

Irvine Company noted in a written statement that, despite the age of permitting documents, they still have to comply with current building and public safety codes when developing Orange Heights.

The company also is highlighting changes that will come with the development, including new public trails, widening Santiago Canyon Road to three lanes in each direction and adding bikeways and walkways along the route.

Orange gave Irvine Company a grading permit for the project in fall of 2022. From the city’s perspective, Orange spokesperson Charlene Cheng said, there’s nothing stopping construction from getting underway.