Las Flores Project Approval Upheld on Appeal : Courts: An environmental group had sued County Board of Supervisors over plan. Santa Margarita Co. has go-ahead to build 2,500 homes east of Mission Viejo.

In a blow to environmentalists, a state appeals court has upheld a decision that allows the 2,500-home Las Flores development to be built in the foothills east of Mission Viejo.

The decision was a victory for the Santa Margarita Co., which owns the land and will build the development, and the Orange County Board of Supervisors, which approved the project.

The local chapter of the National Audubon Society filed suit against county supervisors more than two years ago, alleging that the project was approved with inadequate environmental protection, including traffic measures. A year ago, a Superior Court judge ruled that the county’s environmental impact report was adequate, so the environmental group appealed.

“It is with mixed emotions that we receive the news of our legal victory,” said Santa Margarita Co. spokeswoman Diane Gaynor. “On one hand, we’re very pleased. . . . On the other hand, we’re very sad that it took nearly three-quarters of a million dollars in legal fees and over two years of litigation to reach this ruling.”

Pete DeSimone, a preserve manager for the Sea & Sage Audubon Society, declined to comment Thursday because he had not yet seen the appeals court ruling. It was issued Wednesday but released Thursday.

Local environmentalists had called the Las Flores lawsuit a major attempt to start using the courts to force the Board of Supervisors to provide better protection of wildlife, natural resources and air quality. They also want the supervisors to ensure traffic conditions in Orange County aren’t worsened by new development.

In a ruling written by Presiding Justice David G. Sills, the appeals court said that “just because an impact is ‘significant’ does not mean the County Board of Supervisors is required to reject the project. . . . Under the circumstances of this case, it would be punitive to make the county redraft the (environmental report), recirculate it for public comment, and then rewrite it once again.”

That, the court said, borrowing language from an earlier ruling, is “a fate worse than Purgatory.”

The Audubon group alleged that the environmental report failed to take into account the impact Las Flores would have on street congestion, especially at seven key intersections in the Lake Forest area near the Santa Ana Freeway.

But the court found that the county supervisors had been made aware of traffic issues and “had already grappled with the issue (so) there is nothing substantive to be gained by ordering the EIR redone.”

“It is a matter of common knowledge . . . that traffic congestion is one of Orange County’s most pressing problems, particularly in the El Toro-Lake Forest area,” the appeals court said. “The relevant issue . . . is whether the incremental environmental effects of a project are significant.”

The “increased traffic from the project would not be significant” at those intersections, the court said, adding that “anyone can tell by simply looking at the map that traffic from Las Flores is not going to be heading through the El Toro-Lake Forest area.”

The trial court judge originally ruled for the Audubon Society group, than reversed his decision, saying he had erred and misunderstood the evidence.

In its appeal, the Audubon group alleged that the Superior Court judge had no authority to reverse his original decision. But the appeals court disagreed, saying “there is no doubt that the trial judge was well within his authority to vacate the initial judgment.”

The appeals court also shot down the environmentalists’ contention that areas surrounding Las Flores might be developed so the cumulative effect on freeways should have been considered. “Future development . . . is by no means clear. The distance between a glint in the developer’s eye and a (new) commuter . . . joining a crowded freeway is a long and tenuous one indeed,” the court said.

Environmentalists worry not just about the traffic impact, but the effect on natural resources in the area, including 218 acres of coastal sage scrub, the habitat of the California gnatcatcher. None of the birds were found nesting there, Gaynor said.

The 3,000-page environmental report was reviewed at 11 public hearings and had been in the works for three years before the lawsuit was filed, but environmentalists said it contained major holes and flaws.

The Santa Margarita Co., which built the community of Rancho Santa Margarita, is Orange County’s second largest landowner. The 1,005-acre Las Flores project, which includes 588 acres of open space, is to be located between Mission Viejo and Coto de Caza near O’Neill Regional Park.