Canyon Crest: It's Baaaack?

About two and a half years after the Shopoff Group's attempts to get approval from the City of Brea for its Canyon Crest housing subdivision tentative tract map failed due to financial issues, it looks as if there might be some new developments (!)

According to the homeowners' association newsletter from Olinda Village, the owners (Old Standard Life Insurance Company--see the posts from a little more than a year ago in Spring 2010 about this company and its associated firms) have contacted the Brea Planning Department.  As noted on the Hills for Everyone Web site (click here), Old Standard went into bankruptcy, but paid fees due by the Shopoff Group to continue the application.  Notably, the Canyon Crest site could potentially have been purchased using funds from Orange County's Measure M, which provided for such acquisitions as mitigation for impacts caused by freeway construction projects.  The owner, Old Standard, declined to make the parcel available.

Now, it appears that an Irvine firm called Concorde Development, founded in 1984 and the developer of projects in such places as San Juan Capistrano, Placentia and Stockton, is working with the owner in moving an appeal forward that would involve a reexamination and updating of the Draft Environmental Impact Report (DEIR) that was submitted by Shopoff, particularly with respect to grading, biology and public safety issues and especially in the aftermath of the 2008 Freeway Complex Fire which ravaged Carbon Canyon and the Canyon Crest site.  Evidently, the city responded concerning what was needed upon initial review and is awaiting a reply.  If successful, the reconstituted DEIR would lead to an evaluation for what would be needed to restart the application process before the city's Planning Commission.

So, keep an ear and eyes out for more if and when the appeal moves forward.