Planners Delay Unocal Project Vote Till Today

FULLERTON —  About 150 residents jammed City Hall Wednesday night for a public hearing on plans to develop 380 acres of oil fields and grassy hillside into a sprawling mix of housing, recreation and nature parks, and an 18-hole golf course.

But instead of voting at the end of the three-hour hearing, the Planning Commission postponed action on the controversial project until 6 p.m. today (Thursday).

Many residents at the meeting were opposed to elements of the Unocal project, the largest single development that the city has considered in the past two decades.

“It’s uneven,” said Kenneth L. Patchett, a resident of the Fairway Village neighborhood that borders the west end of the project. “We feel it is a plan that has, quite frankly, gotten out of control.”

The property, located in an area bounded roughly by Harbor Boulevard on the west, Bastanchury Road to the north, State College Boulevard on the east, and Skyline and Ladera Vista drives to the south, lies within the largest remaining undeveloped parts of Fullerton.

The Planning Commission’s recommendation is scheduled to go before the City Council on Nov. 19.

City planners say that there is contaminated soil from oil production on portions of the site but that it does not pose a health risk. As part of the development, Unocal will comply with extensive health requirements to clean up those areas.

Plans call for converting portions of the site over the next 15 to 25 years from oil production to a mix of single-family and custom homes, duplexes, and apartments or condominiums.

But nearly two-thirds of the property would be devoted to parks, a 17-acre youth sports complex, hiking and biking trails and the 187-acre East Coyote Hills Golf Course, creating a greenbelt throughout the development. The 883 homes would be constructed on only 121 acres of the entire project.

Unocal Land and Development Co. officials say that because they have devoted so much property to open space and the greenbelt concept, they were forced build residential areas at high densities.

Unocal also has set aside 99 acres for the California gnatcatcher, which is a candidate for the federal endangered species list. Included in the preserve will be 44 acres of revegetated land that will be part of a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service pilot program.

Nearby homeowners in the Fairway Village neighborhood have opposed a part of the project that calls for constructing 490 multi-family units, such as condominiums and apartments, on 36 acres west of Brea Boulevard. They point out that their neighborhood is almost half as dense.

“They are proposing to put 55% of the dwellings just across the street from us,” Patchett said, adding that residents fear that the project will bring additional noise, pollution and a decline in their property values. Patchett said homeowners also are opposed to the sports complex, saying that Fullerton already has two regional parks.

Countering density complaints, Unocal officials say that overall the project would have 2.3 dwelling units per acre, whereas a city master plan for the site approved in 1980 allowed for three units per acre. They added that the apartments or condominiums to be constructed on the west end would be buffered from nearby neighborhoods.

City officials have recommended that Unocal shift 123 of the housing units to an area on the east side of Brea Boulevard, where most of entire project is concentrated, chief planner Barry Eaton said.

But Unocal officials maintain that the city’s recommendation would place some of the units in an area that the company does not plan to develop for the next 15 to 20 years. The area also contains current oil production.

The golf course, which will be the centerpiece of the project, is also intended to make up for the loss of the Imperial Golf Course at the northeast end of Fullerton.