Whispering Hills Developer: Timing Is Right for Apartment Complex

The Orange County housing developer that has yet to build out its 314-acre swath near is putting out feelers to potentially construct a 100-unit apartment complex on 10 acres of that land.

The proposal includes 26 units for residents with low incomes and would help the city meet state-mandated affordable housing requirements. It would be built on the north side of Vista Montana, just 400 feet west of La Pata.

The Estates map allows for 155 single-family houses but does not "expressly allow the development of multi-family dwelling units." So the city's Planning Department is asking the City Council to weigh in on  the proposal at its meeting Tuesday night.

"The project is intended to be modeled after the Capistrano Pointe project by Lyon Communities on Camino Las Ramblas," a letter to the city from Woodbridge Homes Inc. states. The letter goes on to list six reasons the timing and location are right, including:

• There aren't any existing neighbors to object.
• It will provide housing for teachers and employees at San Juan Hills. 
• Traffic would "generally be counter to that generated by the adjacent school."

The Whispering Hills development was approved in 2004. At that time, the City Council requested that Rancho San Juan, a limited liability corporation of Woodbridge Homes, prepare blueprints for an affordable-housing project on a 4-acre parcel.

In 2008, however, the council denied Rancho San Juan's proposal for a  163-unit apartment project with 33 "affordable" units. At that time, it said there was no public benefit to changing the city's land use regulations on the property from low to high density.

It also said the site did not provide adequate access to public transit or close access to shopping. "While future commercial services may become available at the Ortega Highway/La Pata Avenue intersection, the timing of commercial services improvements is not imminent, and the location of those services remains rather distant," the council wrote in 2008.

In its most recent letter, Woodbridge Homes said, "There will be good access to La Pata, which will soon be a major arterial thoroughfare between San Juan Capistrano and San Clemente.

La Pata's expansion into a major byway is , as the county is still seeking tens of millions of dollars to fund the addition of lanes and to fill its big gap over the Prima Descheca Landfill.