Suite 320
Los Angeles, CA 90010-1904
ANGELES CHAPTER
| 3435 Wilshire Boulevard Suite 320 Los Angeles, CA 90010-1904 |
ANGELES CHAPTER |
| FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE |
CONTACT: Sherry Meddick
714-351-8412 (cell) 714-633-6940 (after 10:30 a.m.) Frank Angel |
SIERRA CLUB LAWSUIT CHALLENGES IRVINE COMPANY'S FLAWED DEVELOPMENT PLANS FOR HILLS EAST OF ORANGE |
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Santa Ana, CA, December 14, 2005-A lawsuit against billionaire Donald Bren's Irvine Company and City of Orange challenging a proposed six-mile long housing project in the hills east of Orange was filed today by the Sierra Club's Orange Hills Task Force. Citing a badly flawed plan that will create severe traffic congestion, pollute the air and water, increase ambient noise levels and obliterate valuable wildlife habitats and scenic resources, the lawsuit asks the court to rescind the development 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/Jamboree to 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. An important goal of this litigation is to require the city to consider environmentally superior alternatives that will rein in the massive urban sprawl the project will introduce into semi-rural East Orange and the canyons bordering the Cleveland National Forest. The Orange Hills Task Force, composed of concerned East Orange and canyon residents, has retained noted environmental attorney Frank Angel to pursue the litigation. Angel specializes in representing organizations and citizen groups in environmental, coastal act and land use disputes. His recent credits include successful litigation against Washington Mutual's 2,900-acre Ahmanson Ranch project in Los Angeles County and Las Vegas- based CCRC Farms' Holtz Ranch subdivision in Orange County's Silverado Canyon. The citizen task force itself has a history of effective legal work against Bren's company and successfully settled an earlier lawsuit on a related project with major concessions by the outside developer. "We are confident our lawsuit will be successful," says task force member Eric Noble. "There is a recent precedent: an appellate opinion forcing a different project to follow county general plan requirements concerning traffic flow on Santiago Canyon Road - the very road adversely affected by this development." Added task force member Sherry Meddick, ""It's sad that City Hall ignores current area residents, and that local citizens are forced to pay legal fees to protect their neighborhoods from reckless, outside development." # # # |
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