1,750 Homes Planned Near Old Town Temecula, Mountain Lion Corridor

TEMECULA, CA — A proposed development project that would bring up to 1,750 residential units and other construction to a 270-acre area west of Old Town Temecula is likely moving forward — under the terms of a legal pact with conservation groups.

On Tuesday, Temecula City Council will address a piece of the legal requirements for the Altair development.

The proposed Altair project dates back almost 10 years and the environmental review process was completed, but conservation groups balked at the development citing the impacts on a wildlife corridor for endangered Santa Ana mountain lions and other creatures.

In October 2020, a legal agreement was hammered out with the city to protect the corridor. The pact permanently secures a 55-acre “south parcel” — one of the few passages left for mountain lions to move between coastal and inland mountains. The lion population suffers from extremely low levels of genetic diversity due to limited wildlife connectivity, according to the conservation groups Center for Biological Diversity, Sierra Club, Mountain Lion Foundation, and Cougar Connection.

The groups filed a lawsuit against the development in January 2018, with Endangered Habitats League filing a concurrent suit. In March 2020, Judge Daniel Ottolia found that the development’s environmental review failed to properly account for impacts on the Santa Ana mountain lions. The ruling also found that the development was not consistent with Temecula’s general plan nor the Western Riverside County Multiple Species Habitat Conservation Plan.

As part of the October 2020 agreement, the conservation groups dismissed their legal challenge to the development.

During Tuesday's Temecula City Council meeting, councilmembers are slated to sign off on a "right of entry" agreement with Brookfield SoCal Land Constructors, LLC that will allow the firm to conduct physical and biological surveys on city-owned properties in connection with the Altair project. The areas to be surveyed are just west of the Temecula Parkway/Interstate 15 loop.

The surveys are required under the 2020 legal agreement. At the time of the agreement's signing, an attorney for the Center for Biological Diversity said the pact gives Santa Ana’s imperiled mountain lions "a pathway to recovery.”

“Poorly planned highways and development have hemmed this population in, and these beautiful big cats are being driven toward extinction. Now they have a better chance at survival," said attorney J.P. Rose.

“This agreement marks an important step in the fight to protect the Santa Ana mountain lions, and we look forward to collaborating on future efforts to plan and fund the restoration of corridors for these big cats,” said Vicki Long of Cougar Connection.

In addition to housing, the Altair development calls for an elementary school, commercial space,
a clubhouse, civic site, parks and trails. The project is slated for a 270-acre area in southwest Temecula, west of Old Town and south of Ridge Park Drive.

Tuesday's 6 p.m. Temecula City Council meeting takes place at the Civic Center, 41000 Main Street. Read the full meeting agenda here.