After nearly 50 years, a controversial California housing project has finally been approved. The effort to build 181 homes in Orange County has been in the works since the 1970s and has battled opposition for decades.
At an Orange County Board of Supervisors meeting on May 5, officials unanimously rejected yet another appeal to defeat Saddleback Meadows, the decades-old housing plan slated for undeveloped land in Trabuco Canyon in the foothills of the Santa Ana Mountains east of Rancho Santa Margarita. Conservation groups and local residents have raised concerns about the project for almost as long as it’s been proposed, citing traffic worries, wildfire threats and wildlife protection as chief concerns.
The back-and-forth has been going on so long that the bulk of the objection to the most recent approvals centered on the pace of the project itself. The site’s environmental review is so old, opponents argued, that a new review should be completed to take into account the current population and fire risks. The initial review was finished in 2004…