This photo is looking northeast over Carbon Canyon
canyon crest before & after the fire PHOTOS





Follow this link to view some before and after photos of the Canyon Crest property. (PDF 1.13 MB)

Olinda Village Fire
Storm captured on video.

Have a fire related story?
Send it to us at: LearnMore@StopCanyonCrest.org
 

The Shopoff Group is in arrears with
the City of Brea.  When more is
known about an upcoming
meeting it will be posted! 

Don't like the proposed project?
Email the Council.
 
STATUS
By a 3-2 vote, on June 24th the Brea Planning Commission approved the Canyon Crest housing project.

In also approving the Final Environmental Impact Report, they issued three Statements of Overriding Consideration --on air quality, traffic and biology. This means that the threePlanning Commissioners that voted to approve this project, believe that the benefits of this project (providing housing in Brea for millionaires) outweigh the significant, unavoidable unmitigatable negative impacts of (1) air pollution, (2) traffic congestion and (3) destruction of 1,899 oak and walnut trees.

Issuing three Statements of Overriding Consideration is unprecedented in Brea development history.

On Wednesday July 2nd, former Brea councilwoman Bev Perry filed an appeal of this decision, asking the Brea City Council to make the final decision.

Read on and see if you think the rewards outweigh the risks.

LANDSLIDE PRONE TERRAIN
This housing project is located at the top of steep landslide prone slopes in Carbon Canyon next to Chino Hills State Park on the west, Firestone Boy Scout Reservation on the north, Sleepy Hollow on the east and the congested curvy two lane Carbon Canyon Road on the south.

OUTSIDE DEVELOPERS
The outside consortium of developers has proposed 165 executive style houses that will sell for several million dollars a piece. Because the roads into the project are too steep to comply with Brea’s public road standards, the project will lie in a gated community with private roads. The gated aspect of this project also cuts off existing public access to Chino Hills State Park.

TRAFFIC
The additional estimated 1,650 vehicle trips a day (VTD), 165 houses x 10 VTD that will be added to Carbon Canyon Road (already Level F in the morning and evening) will also spill into Brea. That fact that this road is already grid locked is especially dangerous since it is the only way in and out of this fire prone and traffic collision prone canyon.

BULLDOZED HILLS AND DESTROYED WOODLAND
Nearly six million cubic yards of dirt will be moved and 1,899 oak and walnut tees will be bulldozed. This complex, hard to replicate, woodland community, will be replaced with mostly one gallon trees requiring a watering regimen that will use five times the average amount of water a typical Brea household uses. Currently the site uses no water.

ALL BREA TAXPAYERS WILL HELP FOOT THE BILL
Once completed, these additional 165 houses will trigger the need for another water storage tank for emergency use by existing residences in the canyon. Even after Canyon Crest pays its water impact fees, more money will be needed for the completion of this water reservoir. ALL Brea residents will contribute to the building of this water reservoir. The estimated cost of this water storage tank is $1.00 per gallon for the three million gallon tank. This $3 million price tag only includes construction costs and not the cost of acquiring the land (likely through eminent domain) and not the cost of project approval (e.g. writing an Environmental Impact Report).

DOES NOT COMPLY WITH BREA’S RULES
Because the project application was completed in August 2000, the City must apply the former versions of the Brea General Plan, the Carbon Canyon Specific Plan (recently revoked) and the Hillside Management Ordinance. Remarkably, the project does not comply even with the old rules.

BAD PRECEDENT
Not only are three Statements of Overriding Consideration a terrible precedent for Brea but they also expose Brea to what would be a justifiable critique by the City of Diamond Bar. Citing negative impacts like traffic, air quality, the bulldozing of ridgelines and destruction of the area’s rich natural resources, Brea has criticized Diamond Bar’s potential approval of 3,600 housing units on the ridges above Brea.

If Brea City Council approves Canyon Crest, an extraordinarily damaging project in Carbon Canyon (which they are well within their rights to turn down), it would undermine Brea’s argument to Diamond Bar to turn Shell-Aera’s project down. “Do as we say not as we do” would be the accurate account of that decision.