$6 Million OKd for Coal Canyon

A state panel Thursday approved $6 million toward the purchase of Orange County’s Coal Canyon, but officials warned that major hurdles remain before the fragile wilderness corridor will be fully shielded from home construction.

In addition to the money for Coal Canyon, the state Transportation Commission also approved release of $4 million to buy Bair Island in San Francisco Bay. The two purchases were designed by Gov. Pete Wilson as a final major environmental acquisition before he leaves office.

But those hoping to preserve the environmentally important canyon must still make a deal allowing public purchase of the privately held canyon land that lies on the border between Orange and Riverside counties. The $6 million in state money, coupled with other expected funds, falls short of the expected cost of the land, an estimated $14 million to $15 million.

Federal wildlife officials, meanwhile, said they have not approved any arrangement for a key incentive designed to make the deal attractive for the developer that owns the land, St. Clair Co. To make the deal fly, state officials are proposing that St. Clair be allowed to expedite development on other land it owns in the region.

Despite the uncertainty, those who have fought for years to protect the canyon were encouraged by the Wilson administration’s announcement that acquisition is pending.

“We are pleased with the Wilson administration’s recognition of the importance, not only of this corridor, but of corridors in general,” said Claire Schlotterbeck, president of Hills for Everyone, a group that helped create Chino Hills State Park and has fought for the preservation of Coal Canyon.

“We’re excited. It’s a real watershed day,” said Geary Hund, resource ecologist with the state Department of Parks and Recreation.

Coal Canyon has been called the most environmentally valuable unprotected open space in Southern California, a precious link between the Chino Hills and the Santa Ana Mountains that allows movement of rare wildlife in a region swiftly being carpeted by red-tile-roofed homes, shopping malls and freeways.

“Literally, there is a river of life that runs through there,” Hund said.

The habitats of several wild animals, including mountain lions, bobcats and coyotes, as well as plants such as the uncommon Coulter’s Matilija poppy are connected by the Coal Canyon corridor. If the corridor were developed, biologists fear the Chino Hills could become an island in an urban sea, its wild creatures more susceptible to inbreeding, illness and extinction.

Despite news that the canyon may be protected, some worried environmentalists were adding up the numbers and hoping that enough money could be assembled to buy the land.

State officials outline a funding package that includes the $6 million in state funds, $4.5 million from other sources and about $2 million from the California Department of Transportation to offset environmental damage caused by future widening of the Riverside Freeway east of Coal Canyon.

“With that $6 million, we have at least half the cost of the project, and [there are] enough other possibilities that I am really confident we are over the hump and that this is going to happen,” said Richard Rayburn, chief of the resource management division of the state parks department.

But one of those possibilities, the road-widening project, is not yet certain. A proposal undergoing environmental review calls for adding one lane to each side of the busy highway between the Foothill tollway and the Corona Freeway, with a third lane added in some spots, said Rose Orem, spokeswoman for the Caltrans district office covering Orange County. The three-mile project would make the highway 10 lanes wide in some places.

Heightening the uncertainty, no decision has been made that any money to offset environmental damage from the project would go toward the canyon purchase, she said.

“It hasn’t been decided that we will be contributing to the Coal Canyon project,” Orem said.

However, Bob Wolf, chairman of the Transportation Commission that supervises Caltrans, has said the project is a priority of Wilson.

“If the commission and its chairman want this to happen,” said one state official, “they certainly have the authority to get it on a fast track.”

Times staff writer Frank Clifford contributed to this story.