Voice of OC (https://voiceofoc.org/tag/esperanza-hills/)
The same appeals court previously found the county’s environmental documents for the project failed to set standards for an evacuation plan; under-calculated water needs; and had an inaccurate map of protected land.
Joe Byrne, long time resident of Yorba Linda alerts the public that the Esperanza Hills project is coming before the OC Board of Supervisors on Tuesday. The developer has lost two legal battles. The project site is also a known fire corridor.
Longtime Yorba Linda resident Sharon Rehmeyer has spent her career educating young students. In retirement she is now trying to educate decision makers as to the danger of building houses in a fire zone coupled with access issues.
An appeals court blocked the Esperanza Hills project because supervisors approved it without minimum evacuation standards.
The residents’ group Protect Our Homes and Hills (POHAH) has been engaged in a land use battle of monumental proportions with the County of Orange since 2012. The 4th District Court of Appeals ruled on Friday the 13th, that claims for a defective Environmental Impact Report (EIR) on Esperanza Hills were accurate.
Yorba Linda resident Bob Kanne challenges county supervisors on the latest plan before them on Tuesday for developing the Esperanza Hills tract, questioning whether only one road access in the plan adequately covers public safety needs. Kanne argues Tuesday’s vote will be a good indicator of whether county supervisors have absorbed lessons learned from the 2008 Freeway Complex Fire.
The personality conflicts that often bubble just under the surface on the county Board of Supervisors spilled onto the public dais Tuesday as supervisors considered plans for a controversial development in Yorba Linda.
On December 13th the Orange County Board of Supervisors will attempt to comply with a court judgement which rescinded approvals and entitlements for the Esperanza Hills project.
The approval came after an organized group of residents raised a series of concerns, especially regarding fire evacuations. But the developer argued his project would act as a buffer between existing homes and a wildfire.
The hotly contested project has been temporarily put on hold Tuesday, after a well-organized group of residents said lives would be put at even greater risk when the area faces another wildfire.