SAN CLEMENTE : Developer, Goats Cut Meal Deal

A herd of traveling goats employed by firefighters to clear hazardous brush has made its way south from the hills of Laguna Beach to the site of a future 3,500-acre housing and commercial complex.

The first of about 2,500 goats that will be used are now grazing a path around a 1,200-acre nature conservancy to create a firebreak. Ultimately, the goats will nibble away brush on an estimated 1,600 acres around the conservancy and throughout the area where the Arvida company plans to build, said Bill Gresh, director of the project’s development.

“By doing this, we’re not bulldozing the environment,” Gresh said.

About 1,200 goats were confined last week to a half-acre site in the backcountry near the conservancy. A makeshift corral of wire mesh and a wood barrier outlined the goats’ boundaries and feasting ground.

In a week, they will have cleared the brown tumbleweeds and dry thistles from that area and a herder will move them to the next spot a few feet away. More goats are expected to arrive in about two weeks. The grazing project is expected to take two years.

The goats, a mixture of three or four breeds, belong to an Orinda animal contractor who also uses them in the Santa Monica Mountains.

Arvida began trucking in the goats last month from Laguna Beach and Orinda to clear the 300-foot-wide path. The path will help control brush fires that might otherwise threaten the conservancy.

After the goats cleared the hillsides of Laguna Beach this summer, owner Ken McWilliam began searching for a place to keep them during the winter.

That’s part of the reason he and Arvida agreed to exchange no money for the service, Gresh said. “It’s a win-win situation: We get a firebreak and he gets a pasture.”

Arvida spokesman Mark Paolucci said the company brought 2,000 sheep in to graze the land last year. The goats are now picking up where the sheep left off.

“Goats eat just about to the bone, and it saves us from bringing in gas-hog equipment, scraping (the brush) up and bringing it to the landfill.”

The goats are part of Arvida’s development plan for the Talega project, which will include 5,000 homes, two championship golf courses, a business park and a town center to be built over 10 years.

The City Council approved housing tract maps for the project last year. Now, city and company officials are hammering out an agreement that will outline how much money Arvida will provide for public services such as police and fire protection.

The City Council has set a Dec. 18 deadline for the agreement.

Meanwhile, Paolucci said construction is scheduled to begin by next summer, with the first residents moving in the following year.