Mountain Park Development

During a brief meeting Friday morning, the City Council formally completed its long-awaited and hard-won annexation of Gypsum Canyon, clearing the way for a huge, 8,000-home residential community. Just three council members were present, Mayor Fred Hunter, William D. Ehrle and Bob D. Simpson. They unanimously approved the annexation during the two-minute session. The vote came two days after a local planning organization gave its blessing to the annexation.

Orange County stands on the verge of an extraordinary new burst of home building, with projects moving forward in recent months that could earmark as many as 21,000 units for construction in the coming decade. Never mind that recession and tight-fisted banks have depressed the building industry from coast to coast. Never mind that new projects in Orange County increasingly are slated for environmentally sensitive land and face better-organized slow-growth opposition.

On the heels of Orange County supervisors' vote to abandon plans for a Gypsum Canyon jail, the Anaheim City Council indicated Tuesday night that it will approve an agreement with the Irvine Co. that would transform the canyon into the 8,000-home Mountain Park development. The council is scheduled to vote on the agreement in two weeks, but comments of council members Tuesday indicated that a majority already favors the project. Still, possible hurdles remain before development can begin.

During a brief meeting Friday morning, the City Council formally completed its long-awaited and hard-won annexation of Gypsum Canyon, clearing the way for a huge, 8,000-home residential community. Just three council members were present, Mayor Fred Hunter, William D. Ehrle and Bob D. Simpson. They unanimously approved the annexation during the two-minute session. The vote came two days after a local planning organization gave its blessing to the annexation.

Orange County stands on the verge of an extraordinary new burst of home building, with projects moving forward in recent months that could earmark as many as 21,000 units for construction in the coming decade. Never mind that recession and tight-fisted banks have depressed the building industry from coast to coast. Never mind that new projects in Orange County increasingly are slated for environmentally sensitive land and face better-organized slow-growth opposition.

A powerful local planning agency cleared the way Wednesday for Anaheim to annex Gypsum Canyon for a housing development, and county officials signaled afterward that they may soon drop their own efforts to acquire the property. Supervisors and other officials said the board will almost certainly abandon a proposed Gypsum Canyon landfill when it takes the issue up in December.

Touting the Irvine Co.'s provisions for parkland and open space, the Anaheim City Council approved the company's development plan for an 8,000-home residential community in Gypsum Canyon. The Mountain Park project, which had been threatened for years by the Orange County Board of Supervisors' push to build a jail in the canyon, passed in a unanimous vote of the council.

The chairman of the Orange County Board of Supervisors will officially propose today that the county end its four-year pursuit of a Gypsum Canyon jail, setting the stage for a crucial debate and positioning Supervisor Harriett M. Wieder as the key vote. "The county has spent years, and millions of dollars, exploring the development of Gypsum Canyon only to see the costs continue to escalate," Board Chairman Gaddi H. Vasquez wrote in a letter to his colleagues that was distributed late Monday.

Facing separate legal challenges from the county and a local environmental group, the city gave final approval to plans for the largest housing development in Anaheim history. The City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to approve zoning and the Irvine Co.'s specific plans for the transformation of Gypsum Canyon into a new community of nearly 8,000 homes.

Lawyers for Orange County government filed a lawsuit against the City of Anaheim on Monday, charging that the city overlooked key environmental issues when it approved plans for a huge new housing development in Gypsum Canyon. The lawsuit, which could bottle up the city's efforts to forge ahead with the proposed Mountain Park development, is largely intended to buy time for the county.

A powerful local planning agency cleared the way Wednesday for Anaheim to annex Gypsum Canyon for a housing development, and county officials signaled afterward that they may soon drop their own efforts to acquire the property. Supervisors and other officials said the board will almost certainly abandon a proposed Gypsum Canyon landfill when it takes the issue up in December.

Touting the Irvine Co.'s provisions for parkland and open space, the Anaheim City Council approved the company's development plan for an 8,000-home residential community in Gypsum Canyon. The Mountain Park project, which had been threatened for years by the Orange County Board of Supervisors' push to build a jail in the canyon, passed in a unanimous vote of the council.

On the heels of Orange County supervisors' vote to abandon plans for a Gypsum Canyon jail, the Anaheim City Council indicated Tuesday night that it will approve an agreement with the Irvine Co. that would transform the canyon into the 8,000-home Mountain Park development. The council is scheduled to vote on the agreement in two weeks, but comments of council members Tuesday indicated that a majority already favors the project. Still, possible hurdles remain before development can begin.

The chairman of the Orange County Board of Supervisors will officially propose today that the county end its four-year pursuit of a Gypsum Canyon jail, setting the stage for a crucial debate and positioning Supervisor Harriett M. Wieder as the key vote. "The county has spent years, and millions of dollars, exploring the development of Gypsum Canyon only to see the costs continue to escalate," Board Chairman Gaddi H. Vasquez wrote in a letter to his colleagues that was distributed late Monday.

Facing separate legal challenges from the county and a local environmental group, the city gave final approval to plans for the largest housing development in Anaheim history. The City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to approve zoning and the Irvine Co.'s specific plans for the transformation of Gypsum Canyon into a new community of nearly 8,000 homes.

The County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday ordered its lawyers to file suit against the city of Anaheim, charging that the city's environmental analysis of a huge new housing development in Gypsum Canyon is legally flawed. The supervisors' action comes as county officials search for a way to press ahead with either a jail or landfill on the land, both strongly resisted by Anaheim officials.

Charging that the city of Anaheim paid little attention to the preservation of wildlife habitats, a local environmental group has gone to court to block a plan that would allow the construction of nearly 8,000 homes in Gypsum Canyon. Friends of Tecate Cypress filed the lawsuit Thursday, asking a Superior Court judge to decertify an environmental impact study of the project that the Anaheim City Council approved last month.