Orange Hills task force files lawsuit

A proposed 6-mile long housing project in the hills east of Orange is being challenged in a lawsuit filed by the Sierra Club's Orange Hills Task Force. The suit against the City of Orange and The Irvine Company, Orange County's largest land developer, targets incomplete planning activities that ignored or glossed over the negative impact of such a massive development.

Photo by Tony Richards

The lawsuit asks the court to rescind the approvals the city granted the Irvine Company for the controversial Santiago Hills II and East Orange Planned Communities Project. The project, stretching from Santiago Canyon Road and Jamboree to the open hills behind Irvine Lake, is slated to add nearly 4,000 tract units to an area already short on roads, services and resources needed to support a large influx of people. Project opponents note that the development plan will create severe traffic congestion, pollute the air and water, increase noise levels, and obliterate wildlife habitats and scenic resources.

An important goal of this litigation is to require the city to consider environmentally superior alternatives that will rein in the urban sprawl that the project seeks to introduce.

The Orange Hills Task Force has retained environmental attorney Frank Angel to pursue the litigation. Angel specializes in environmental, Coastal Act and land use disputes. His recent credits include successful litigation against Washington Mutual's 2,900-acre Ahmanson Ranch in L.A. County and Las Vegas-based CCRC Farms' Holtz Ranch subdivision in Orange County's Silverado Canyon. The Task Force itself has a history of effective legal work against The Irvine Company, and settled an earlier lawsuit on a related project with major concessions by the outside developer.

'It's sad that City Hall ignores area residents,' said task force member Sherry Meddick. 'Citizens are forced to pay legal fees to protect their neighborhoods from reckless development. But we're prepared to do it again.'