Week in Review : MAJOR EVENTS, IMAGES AND PEOPLE IN ORANGE COUNTY NEWS : COUNTY : Supervisors Name 4 Preferred Sites for Jail Facility

County supervisors last week selected four preferred sites for a new 6,000-inmate maximum-security jail, most of which generated immediate opposition from area officials or residents.

In calling for draft environmental impact reports on the four, the board also chose six secondary sites from a list of 35 remote locations studied by the county Environmental Management Agency.

Three of the primary choices are in the county’s eastern foothills: the Coal Canyon-Gypsum Canyon area near Anaheim Hills, and Fremont Canyon and Irvine Lake east of the City of Orange.

The fourth is Chiquita Canyon northeast of San Juan Capistrano near the Ortega Highway.

Orange Mayor Jess Perez opposed the Fremont Canyon and Irvine Lake sites, which are owned by the Irvine Co. and viewed for annexation by the city. Company spokesman Sam Couch also objected, telling supervisors that his firm opposes “placement of a jail on any site owned by the Irvine Co.”

The Gypsum-Coal Canyon site is owned in part by Coldwell Banker and the Irvine Co. The Chiquita Canyon site is owned by the Santa Margarita Co.

The six secondary choices are: Rattlesnake Canyon, north of Irvine; and La Paz, Canada Gobernadora, Caspers Park, Caspers Park East and San Juan Creek, all south of the Ortega Highway.

Board Chairman Ralph B. Clark recommended adopting the sites to help speed the selection process in view of “our jail overcrowding crises.”

The board has been under pressure to relieve jail overcrowding since March, 1985, when they and Sheriff Brad Gates were held in contempt of court by U.S. District Judge William P. Gray for not heeding his 1978 order to improve conditions at the main men’s jail in downtown Santa Ana.