Brea Council OKs Disputed Olinda Heights Plan : Development: Critics have complained the 662-home project site borders a landfill and a quake fault.

BREA —  An oil company’s hotly contested plans to build a master-planned community in the hills above the city won its bid Tuesday by a narrow City Council vote.

Texas-based Santa Fe Energy Resources Inc. will build single-family homes, apartments, a school, a park and history center on 284 acres north of Carbon Canyon Road and east of Valencia Avenue. The property was once Orange County’s top petroleum producer and home to about 3,000 workers.

The project, called Olinda Heights, has been delayed repeatedly and has undergone six major revisions because of public outcry over the number of housing units that Santa Fe was asking to build. The proposal approved Tuesday night by a 3-2 vote calls for 662 homes.

Critics also have long voiced concerns about traffic and safety at the site, which borders a landfill and an earthquake fault and contains oil wells and storage tanks.

“I understand that there are concerns,” Mayor Bev Perry said Tuesday. “But I have not heard testimony or evidence that the concerns about this property cannot be mitigated.

“Do I believe that people are going to be safe? Yes, I do.”

Diane Taylor, who is among the residents opposed to the project, said after the vote, “I’m frustrated and disgusted. This level of development is totally inappropriate for Carbon Canyon. . . . I feel as betrayed by the insensitivity to the community by three council members as I was by the insensitivity to the judicial process by the O.J. Simpson jury.”

Council members Kathryn E. Wiser and Glenn G. Parker voted against the project, saying they could not overcome concerns about health, safety and traffic.

“I believe it’s a bad location for a school,” Parker said.

Project consultants and city staff reports have supported Santa Fe’s contention that possible health and safety problems can be mitigated. Many developers have built housing on former oil fields, they said.

The plan enjoys strong support from the Brea Historical Society, because Santa Fe has promised to set aside 10 acres for a history center. The Brea Chamber of Commerce also cites a need for more housing and supports a part of the plan that calls for a village for faculty from Cal State Fullerton and other schools.

But residents have been particularly concerned about the traffic that would be generated along the narrow and often congested Carbon Canyon Road. The city-commissioned environmental impact report estimates that the Olinda Heights project would generate a daily average of nearly 7,000 trips and significantly affect nearby intersections.