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“capricious and arbitrary.” Rutter appealed the decision, but the county did not join in. Nonetheless, the appellate court ruled in favor of Rutter and the county, and determined that the board of supervisors can amend a community’s specific plan “as of- ten as deemed necessary” as long as the changes are “in harmony” with the plan’s intent. The court also ruled that the board has the authority to “interpret” the goals of land-use plans to determine whether a project is consistent with them. In this case, the jus- tices ruled that the former board’s approval of the FTSP amend- ments was based on “substantial evidence” that the changes hon- ored the plan’s intent. What the court ignored was that the “sub- stantial evidence” was provided by the developer. “Justices Fybel, Aronson and


Ikola have declared open season for developers in Orange Coun- ty’s rural canyons,” said Ray Chandos of the Rural Canyons Conservation Fund, a co-plain- tiff. “According to them, the self- serving statements of developers trump the obvious facts and com- mon sense.” The FTSP, for example, re- quired that natural oak woodlands be preserved, and any individual oak tree over five inches in di- ameter at four-and-one-half-feet from the ground be transplanted, rather than cut down. With more than 150 oak trees standing in Rutter’s way, including mature oaks over three feet in diameter, the court sided with the develop- er-hired arborist’s claim that the oaks would be better preserved by removing them and replacing them with acorns.


once a requirement to set aside a portion of any development as “natural open space” did not fit the developer’s footprint.


Rutter


convinced the board to remove the word “natural” and allow any landform without a building on it to be considered “open space.” In this development, graded ar- eas between streets and houses, bulldozed berms and drainage ditches will be accepted to meet the FTSP’s 66 percent open space preservation requirement. In addition


Foothills Sentry


CANYON BEAT By


Janet Wilson By


Andrew Tonkovich All quiet on the canyon front to unwelcome


changes to its specific plan, Sad- dleback challenged the devel- oper’s analysis of traffic impacts on Santiago Canyon Road. Us- ing the traffic analysis standards mandated by the county’s general plan, the 780 additional car trips per day generated by the new development failed the capacity test. Rutter asked the county to employ an alternate methodology (one typically applied to urban highways) to determine traffic impacts on the scenic roadway. Under that standard, the same 780 car trips had “no impact” on San- tiago Canyon Road traffic.


Money talks “This reversal should alarm


all citizens who care about pro- tecting Orange County’s unique areas,


like the canyons,” Canyons Conser- said


Gloria Sefton, co-founder of the Saddleback vancy.


“It should be a wake-up


call on how important it is to elect officials who will represent their constituents and not just moneyed interests.” The higher court’s ruling is the


Destroy it to save it?


There was also “substantial evidence,” the court found, that moving 1.9 million cubic yards of earth to transform a valley into flat ground would “result in great- er overall protection of environ- mental resources as the project would cluster the development and provide more contiguous open space.” And “open space” is also sub- ject to interpretation. What was


second time in the past 14 months that Orange County appellate judges have overturned a trial court’s enforcement of a commu- nity’s specific plan. In a lawsuit filed by the Foothill Communities Association in 2011, the lower court ruled that the county’s amendments to the North Tustin Specific Plan (NTSP) allowing a senior housing facility in the midst of single-family homes was “illegal spot zoning.” Courts may find that spot zoning is illegal when it may provide unjustified special treatment that benefits a particular owner, while under- mining the pre-existing rights and uses of adjacent property owners. In January 2014, the appellate court ruled that the spot zoning added to North Tustin’s specific plan was not illegal. Supervisor Todd Spitzer, who was not on the board when the North Tustin and Foothill Trabu- co specific plans were amended, is now working with county plan- ners to remove the spot zoning clause from the NTSP.


What’s good for bad drama seems bad for good governance, the noticeable absence of ten- dentiousness, hysteria and dis- organization adding up, sadly, to weak attendance at recent Silverado-Modjeska Recreation and Parks District board meet- ings. They’re characterized late- ly by reassuringly boring, gently self-disciplined, democratically inviting official behavior, per posted agendas and orderly pro- tocol, with minutes on the web- site. (Hard to compete with the shenanigans of previous board infotainment.) With reliably reg- ular financial reports, delightfully tedious discussion, full transpar- ency, and elected public officials recusing themselves at the slight- est suggestion of conflict of inter- est, lucky citizens who do attend likely congratulate themselves on the dull civic surety of honest co- operative polity. Indeed, March’s SMRPD meeting ran as smoothly as the newly-shaven face of Director Topp, the formerly hirsute tech and social media manager-direc- tor whose visage makes the board now tonsorially unanimous, as well, on most votes. McWilliams shaved his a while back, leaving only hairy administrative details, as those resulting from Direc- tor Olsen spending hundreds of hours researching state law, writ- ing proposed drafts and pricing stoves for purchase for upgrading SMRPD facilities. Olsen guided a debate over wording of official revised district purchasing policy written to be consistent with Cal- ifornia’s new public works man- ual, a 120-page doc to which all agencies respond after, yes, read- ing it first. Better him than me! Difficult choices re member- ship dues and sponsorship ap- peals resulted in re-upping with the California Special Districts Association, helping underwrite the fall Trails4All Cleanup, con- tributing $350 for Silverado’s Easter Egg Hunt, and signing on with One OC clearinghouse to qualify for engaging the labor of court-appointed volunteers need- ing a place to pay their modest debt to society.


Silverado Chil-


dren’s Center reported its best month in memory, with tuition collections and donations


pre-


dicting continued operation for the time being, welcome news to those planning to make the cen- ter financially independent. One way is attending the Sunday, May 3 Chili Cook-off at Irvine Lake. And if you’re wondering how an elected body decides to re-


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place a kaput 1950s-era Toast- master with a two-oven, four- burner, fully-functioning, non- commercial insulated unit for the community center kitchen, think delegation, with the board autho- rizing Olsen $3,800 for purchase, installation and delivery on its behalf. Wonder any further, and you might find yourself on a Costco trip with John!


On the road again Emcee of a recent Public


Works meeting on resurfacing Mo Canyon Road, Joanne Hub- ble reports residents will receive mailed information reminders of partial and full closure schedule of the road, planned on and off throughout April. Open on trash day but be prepared for modest inconvenience and, yes, a nifty new road in a month. More events: Silverado Li- brary Swap Meet-April 11 & 12. “Art and Wine” Modjeska Ranch Rescue benefit at the Kill- ingsworths’ - April 12. Modjes- ka Canyon Firefighters Annual Awards Dinner - April 25, Mis- sion Viejo Elks Lodge.


Modjeska hootenanny impre- sario Dennis McHale invites all to our highly literate communi- ty’s Saturday, May 2 celebration of the 75th anniversary of "The Grapes of Wrath." Part of a na- tional huzzah over Steinbeck’s social justice novel, we trust you, like Tom Joad, will be there. Food, live music and screening of John Ford’s 1940 film version in Modjeska Park at sunset, where you can recite along with Henry Fonda those classic lines: I’ll be


Tuesday, April 7, 2015


ever’where - wherever you look. Wherever they’s a fight so hun- gry people can eat, I’ll be there. Wherever they’s a cop beatin’ up a guy, I’ll be there. I’ll be in the way guys yell when they’re mad an’ - I’ll be in the way kids laugh when they’re hungry an’ they know supper’s ready. An’ when our folks eat the stuff they raise an’ live in the houses they build, why, I’ll be there.


Signs of spring


Heard a cello playing sweetly in the near distance? Probably Dion Sorrell, our local outdoor classical musician and peram- bulating photographer, whose street-view picture postings on Facebook are as lovely as his playing. (He’ll perform at Ranch Rescue benefit.)


Reliable anecdote suggests a frightening springtime resur- gence in driver misbehavior on Santiago Canyon Road, where so many go to drive fast, die, or risk killing you and me. One local reports a racer passing an- other canyon’s kamikaze already overtaking the driver obeying the posted speed limit.


That’s three


cars side-by-side on one single- lane country road, transformed into a speedway on a Thursday evening.


Canyon resident Lawrence Hedges sold his spectacular grownup playhouse on Olive Hill after 40 years. Larry and his part- ner, attorney Daniel Uribe, leave improvements, including a tree house and sprawling gardens. The psychoanalyst and award- winning writer moves closer to his office in Orange. As they depart, Western Banded and California pink glow worms return, according to naturalist Joel Robinson, as well as newts, their populations in decline due to habitat loss and introduced predatory species. Watch your step. Happy spring.


(714) 975-1266


License# 971103


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