Stop Canyon Crest

Canyon Crest's History

The Canyon Crest project application was initially submitted to the City of Brea in late 1999. That original application proposed approximately 400-450 residential units on 732 acres. At that time the project site included 396 acres north of Carbon Canyon Road and 336.8 acres south of Carbon Canyon Road. The northern portion of the property included 250 single-family residential lots, trails, and two parks. The southern portion included approximately 150 single-family residential lots, a park, and Soquel Canyon trailhead.

Pursuant to State and local CEQA Guidelines, the City of Brea initiated the environmental review process, and distributed an Initial Study/Notice of Preparation on November 22, 1999 for a 30-day public review period. Due to their inability to provide adequate circulation and emergency access restrictions on the southern portion of the property, the application was withdrawn. Subsequently, the Shopoff Group submitted a revised application proposing to develop up to 250 single family houses on the 367.5 acres north of Carbon Canyon Road. On May 25, 2000, the City prepared and published and Initial Study/Notice of Preparation for this revised project.

After further corrections the City deemed the project application complete on August 25, 2000. After again submitting revised project information in May 2001, October 2001, March 2002, and April 2002, the Draft Environmental Impact Report (EIR) was published on June 28, 2002. Following the end of the 45-day public review and comment period and after receiving numerous comments criticizing both EIR findings and project characteristics, this application was placed on hold by the Shopoff Group.

During this same time frame, the City was in the process of updating the 15 year old (NOTE: state law requires General Plans be revised every 10 years). Fearing that the new General Plan would be more restrictive of development in steep and scenic hillsides the Shopoff Group sued the City to stop the new General Plan requirements from applying to them. In October 2002, the City and the Shopoff Group settled the lawsuit in a way that stipulated that the City could not apply any City ordinance, policy, or standard which was not in effect as of August 25, 2000, the date his project application was deemed complete.

After waiting nearly 5 years (likely due to a change in the makeup of the City Council), the Shopoff Group came out of hiding on August 9, 2007 and submitted yet another version on its project. This time Canyon Crest included 165 single-family houses on 367.5 acres of hillsides and canyons on the northern side of Carbon Canyon Road.

It is this Recirculated Draft EIR (RDEIR) that the Planning Commission has been reviewing and receiving comments on since that time. With some minor changes, they approved the Final EIR on a 3-2 vote on June 24, 2008.

This project was appealed to the City Council on July 2, 2008 by former Brea Councilmember Bev Perry.

ACTION BEING APPEALED
Planning Commission Approvals for Canyon Crest Project: Certification of Environmental Impact Statement No. EIR 02-01; Approval of Development Review No. DR 08-01; Approval of Vesting Tentative Map No. TT 15956.

SPECIFIC BASIS FOR THE APPEAL
1) The Planning Commission incorrectly found that the Canyon Crest Project (the “Project”) will provide benefits to Brea that outweigh its significant environmental impacts. In fact, what little benefit the Project would provide is overshadowed by its substantial impacts. The Planning Commission should have recognized this and rejected the Project.

2) The Project must be consistent with the Brea General Plan, the Carbon Canyon Specific Plan, and Brea’s Hillside Management Ordinance as they stood in 2000. It is, however, inconsistent with all three, and therefore the Planning Commission should not have approved the Project.

3) The EIR contained numerous flaws, including but not limited to the following:
     1) The EIR’s discussion of the Project’s contribution to climate change provided no real analysis
         or mitigation;
     2) The EIR failed to recognize the Project’s inconsistency with applicable land use plans and
         ordinances;
     3) The EIR improperly relies on deferred analysis and mitigation to reduce several environmental
         impacts to less than significant levels. In light of these flaws, the EIR was inadequate, and the
         Planning Commission should neither have certified the EIR nor approved the Project.