The Orange County Register
FULLERTON A community debate is brewing over plans to build 760 homes in West Coyote Hills, 510 acres dotted with beavertail cactus and red elderberries that are the city's largest remaining expanse of undeveloped land.
Development plans date back 25 years, but the decades without action led preservationists to hope the land could be kept untouched -- save for nature trails to teach hikers about California's native plant and animal wildlife.
Tonight the city has booked the town's largest auditorium -- the 1,800-seat First Evangelical Free Church sanctuary -- to handle the large crowd expected when Chevron Land and Development Co. presents its plans for the northwest Fullerton property.
``Coyote Hills is the last place we can go around here to see the land as it has been for hundreds of years,'' said Connie Spenger, a 39-year city resident who started Friends of Coyote Hills with a few friends. ``We need to preserve it before it's too late.''
Spenger's group holds monthly walks on a city trail bordering the property to raise awareness and interest in preserving the West Coyote Hills.
More than 2,500 people from Fullerton, Buena Park, La Habra and elsewhere have signed up on the group's mailing list.
``We need to find the funds to do the responsible thing and keep this land open,'' Spenger said.
Pacific Coast Homes, a subsidiary of Chevron, will likely bring its development plans to the City Council for approval this summer.
Officials with Pacific Coast Homes say they are being more than fair about retaining open space.
The current plan calls for keeping 279 acres -- more than half the property -- as natural habitat.
It also calls for eight miles of trails for hikers, bikers and equestrians, five ``view parks'' overlooking the city and 17 acres for a sports park or school.
The land has been slated for development since the early 1970s, when Chevron and Unocal oil companies began talking to city planners about building on some 1,685 acres in the hills of Fullerton.
A push to persuade Fullerton residents to tax themselves to preserve all the land failed.
So a master plan was approved in 1977 for up to 2,700 homes in the East and West Coyote Hills.
East Coyote Hills was developed during the 1980s and 1990s, as was the first phase of West Coyote Hills. In all 1,525 homes were built. But the remaining 510 acres in West Coyote Hills remained undeveloped, prompting a new push to save the land.
``There needs to be an understanding that we're not starting with a blank slate here,'' Fullerton city planner Joel Rosen said. ``We are already working with an approved agreement.''
Still, Pacific Coast Homes needs the city's approval for its specific development plan. The 1977 master plan called for 1,169 houses built on 361 acres of West Coyote Hills. The current plan calls for 760 homes on 179 acres.
``We are hearing from a lot of people with a lot of different demands -- some who really want to know when they can buy a house; others want only open land,'' said Don Means, vice president of Chevron Land and Development Co. ``We really believe we have come up with an idea that balances those needs.''
Bob Ward, a former Fullerton mayor, was part of the original Coyote Hills Committee, which helped craft the 1977 plan. Ward originally favored keeping all the land as open space but worked for a compromise when it became clear he didn't have enough support.
For his efforts, a 72-acre city nature preserve in the West Coyote Hills was named in his honor.
``I believe the new plan is fair,'' Ward said. ``Others are certainly free to find ways to keep the land as open space, but I've learned from experience that it is very difficult.''
Means said his company is not actively looking to sell the land, but he is open to offers. He said no price has been discussed.
``We have so little open land left,'' Spenger said. ``We have to ask, `What are we giving up for 760 homes? And is it worth it?' ''
A community forum on the West Coyote Hills proposal is scheduled for 6:30-10:30 tonight at First Evangelical Free Church of Fullerton, 2801 Brea Blvd. Pacific Coast Homes and Friends of Coyote Hills will give presentations.
Information: (714) 738-6837
(714) 704-3769 or
ecarpenter@ocregister.com
Memo:coyotehills.0422Copyright 2003 The Orange County Register
Record Number: 61440640
