SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO : Harmony Reigns as Project Is Approved

A year ago, few people in the Los Corrales neighborhood would have guessed that a heated debate over a development project would have ended happily.

But at City Hall this week a round of applause from Los Corrales homeowners went up after the City Council approved a 46-acre, 63-custom home project planned for a box canyon in the hills above Los Corrales.

Two hours of testimony Tuesday night capped more than a year of dispute as city officials, homeowners and representatives of the Glendale Federal Development Corp. hashed out the construction, traffic, grading and drainage issues that verged on dividing the community.

When it was over, most residents appeared to be pleased.

“This is a win-win-win situation,” said John Gourlay, a Los Corrales homeowner and parent who was not in favor of the project months ago. “There is something for everybody in this plan.”

The key to the project’s success, residents and city officials say, was the city’s help in finding an alternative route for construction vehicles away from Camino La Ronda, which runs uphill past the Los Corrales neighborhood.

Because the project site is tucked into an undeveloped canyon, there would have been only one way in and out for earthmovers, tractors and other construction equipment.

But the city and Glendale Federal worked out a deal and agreed to share the cost of a temporary road that would feed off La Novia and cut across property now owned by Lusk Development and the Capistrano Valley Water District.

The city’s expenditure on the temporary road is estimated at about $13,000, with the developer to pay most of the total cost of $50,000 to $100,000, said Dick Bobertz, the city’s land-use manager.

Glendale Federal has also changed its drainage and grading plans to address residents’ concerns, said Louise Rice-Lawson, speaking for the developer.

“Three redistribution basins will reduce runoff to 25% of what it is now,” Rice-Lawson said. “We have also softened and changed (the grading plan) and now have a much better design than was originally proposed.”

Not everyone was happy, however. Los Corrales resident John Erickson praised the progress that had been made but urged the council to deny the project because of a “less-than-adequate environmental impact report.”

But the council approved it unanimously. Afterward, Bobertz praised the interplay of all the parties.

“A year ago we had a council chamber full of over 100 people, most of them very, very disturbed about this project,” Bobertz said. “But it’s been kind of a small-town thing. We go out, sit down with them and work, work until we come up with answers. I’m still pretty amazed at how it worked out myself.”