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This is a long story with a happy ending that was hoped for but not assured. The Sierra Club played a role in the story, but I’ll leave it to you to decide whether we should claim victory, just say thank you to a developer, or do some combination of the two.
Our story starts in 2000 when the Angeles Chapter formed the Orange Hills Task Force (OHTF) to protect and preserve 7,700 acres of hills in and around Irvine Park and Peter’s Canyon Park near the City of Orange. The Irvine Company, the largest and most powerful land developer in Orange County, proposed to build 3,900 houses, a lodge, a golf course, and a marina at Irvine Lake, east of Orange. In the early years, the task force worked to raise public awareness about the housing plan while waiting for the release of the Draft Environmental Impact Report (DEIR).
Grass-roots protests, as the cars go by
We held signs on street corners, circulated petitions, and worked to elect city council members who we thought would vote for the environment. Meanwhile, in 2001, the Irvine Company set aside 11,000 acres of open space for permanent protection. This generous act was hailed far and wide as a wonderful thing for which we should be extremely grateful. But it didn’t include the 3,000 acres around Irvine Lake, which were still set for a large, sprawling housing development right in the middle of this newly protected land. The Sierra Club continued its fight.
The Orange Hills Task Force submitted extensive comments both when the Notice of Preparation (NOP) was released in 2003 and again when the Draft Environmental Impact Report (DEIR) was issued in 2004. In late 2005, we were frustrated when the Environmental Impact Report (EIR) contained only perfunctory responses to all our comments. When the City Council met to approve the EIR, 70 people spoke against the project, all to no avail – the project was approved.
In late 2005, we entered the lawsuit phase of the project when the Sierra Club sued the City of Orange and The Irvine Company, claiming the EIR did not adequately address the environmental impacts of the development, particularly as related to traffic. We lost. We appealed and lost again. Our request to have the State Supreme Court review the case was denied.
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| Chapter Chair Carole Mintzer participated in the protests against the Irvine Company's plan to bring 4,000 homes to the hills around Irvine Park and Peter's Park. |
An unintended consequence of the 2008 recession
In 2008, the City of Orange approved the tract maps for the development without requiring a supplementary EIR. The Sierra Club again sued, claiming a supplementary EIR was necessary, partly due to changes in legislation that had taken place in the intervening years. Our concerns included the plans for fuel abatement around the perimeter of the development and the adequacy of the fire escape plans. Again we lost in court – and finally came to the conclusion that it would be impossible to win an environmental lawsuit against The Irvine Company in an Orange County court. We licked our wounds, worked on paying off the debt we had incurred filing three lawsuits, and laid in wait to see when The Irvine Company would begin construction.
It was a sad time for the task force. We may have been the only people in Southern California to have any positive thoughts about the recession, because as awful as it was for so many people, it also brought a stop to new housing construction. Where we had failed, the economy had succeeded. But what would happen when the economy turned around? Would the intervening time bring new ideas and considerations about housing? Could the desire for large houses in sprawling communities be waning? Was it at all possible that the proposed development would be obsolete before it was ever built? We also hoped and believed that Donald Bren, the elderly CEO of The Irvine Company, was concerned about his legacy and how it would be tarnished if 3,000 houses were built in the middle of the open space he had set aside 10 years earlier. And as new housing construction began again in Orange County, the land in east Orange remained ready but untouched.
And then came the best news of all. Six years after Sierra Club filed its last lawsuit against The Irvine Company, Donald Bren and The Irvine Company announced they were going to donate all of the land to the County of Orange so it could be protected as park land. No new houses would be built; the open space would remain whole. It was everything we had fought for and we are beyond grateful for this change of heart and incredible donation. Our celebration really began when County of Orange officially accepted the land in November 2014.
Of course, we will always wonder how our efforts affected the outcome. Did public opinion that was clearly against the development factor in to Donald Bren’s final decision? Or was it just a business decision and a desire for a lasting legacy? I guess we’ll never know, and perhaps it doesn’t matter. Here in Orange County, we have all won.
Carole Mintzer is chair of the Angeles Chapter's Executive Committee.