2008 Woodie Awards
Community Action Against Coyote Hills Being Planned
Development plans continue as community stands up to Chevron and City Council.
Claire Webster
Issue date: 9/13/06 Section: News
Over the last five years, the Chevron TexaCo subsidiary, Pacific Coast Homes, has been planning to build new units on their West Coyote Hills property.
However, many of the surrounding community members are definitely not in high support
of this project.
Chevron originally drew up plans for the renovation in 2003 and then revised them in March. The current plans include 760 residential units as well as part of the land being reserved for commercial use.
The communities in the immediate area have doubts about the project because of the traffic, over crowding of schools, and animal safety issues that may or will arise.
According to Friends of Coyote Hills, with the new homes placed in West Coyote Hills near completion, there will be on average 18,000 new car trips a day. Also, during the construction, there will be another 7,600 car trips. The addition of more car trips will cause even more traffic jams at popular intersections in Fullerton.
In addition to this new traffic, there will be even more air pollution in the local area due
to smog.
Adding more housing and families means adding more children to the already crowded schools. Most schools in the surrounding area are already
implementing the use of bungalows for classrooms due of lack of sufficient funds to build actual
classrooms.
With more students, the schools will have no choice but to either place the extra children in the crowded classrooms and jeopardize the quality of the education given or to hire more teachers and add more bungalows. Even the animals will be put in jeopardy.
The animals in the land are all native to this area, but will be forced to leave their home when the construction starts.
Chevron believes that they can reintroduce the animals to the new habitat, but it is not that simple. Each animal adapts to different
situations differently and some animals can not succeed in adapting to the city life. The animals would be in danger throughout the
entirety of the process.
Along with all of the dangers and problems that the project would create, the local patrons do not want this change to come.
The people in and around Fullerton feel that the change will hurt their environment and deprive
them of nature. There have been city meetings and protests open for anyone interested in helping to save the last 510 acres of open space.
Although nothing permanent has developed from their efforts, they are not losing hope.
Efforts on the part of residents of Coyote Hills are still well on their way to a method of preventing Chevron from attaining their goals.
However, many of the surrounding community members are definitely not in high support
of this project.
Chevron originally drew up plans for the renovation in 2003 and then revised them in March. The current plans include 760 residential units as well as part of the land being reserved for commercial use.
The communities in the immediate area have doubts about the project because of the traffic, over crowding of schools, and animal safety issues that may or will arise.
According to Friends of Coyote Hills, with the new homes placed in West Coyote Hills near completion, there will be on average 18,000 new car trips a day. Also, during the construction, there will be another 7,600 car trips. The addition of more car trips will cause even more traffic jams at popular intersections in Fullerton.
In addition to this new traffic, there will be even more air pollution in the local area due
to smog.
Adding more housing and families means adding more children to the already crowded schools. Most schools in the surrounding area are already
implementing the use of bungalows for classrooms due of lack of sufficient funds to build actual
classrooms.
With more students, the schools will have no choice but to either place the extra children in the crowded classrooms and jeopardize the quality of the education given or to hire more teachers and add more bungalows. Even the animals will be put in jeopardy.
The animals in the land are all native to this area, but will be forced to leave their home when the construction starts.
Chevron believes that they can reintroduce the animals to the new habitat, but it is not that simple. Each animal adapts to different
situations differently and some animals can not succeed in adapting to the city life. The animals would be in danger throughout the
entirety of the process.
Along with all of the dangers and problems that the project would create, the local patrons do not want this change to come.
The people in and around Fullerton feel that the change will hurt their environment and deprive
them of nature. There have been city meetings and protests open for anyone interested in helping to save the last 510 acres of open space.
Although nothing permanent has developed from their efforts, they are not losing hope.
Efforts on the part of residents of Coyote Hills are still well on their way to a method of preventing Chevron from attaining their goals.
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