Citizens of La Habra Heights have long recognized the critical value of open space to the future of our community. This concern was formalized in Goal No. 8 of the La Habra Heights General Plan.

1. Recognize and preserve the unique rural character and individualistic lifestyle of La Habra Heights.

2. Preserve and enhance the scenic beauty and natural wildlife of the area.

3. Minimize alteration of the natural terrain.

4. Preserve, maintain, and encourage agricultural uses, especially avocado groves, citrus groves, and Christmas tree farms.

5. Reduce potential fire and recognize geologic hazards.

6. In harmony with the R-A-1 zoning, the City supports individual rights to keep horses, all animals used for 4-H projects, and other livestock as allowed by local ordinance; and encourage the private development and maintenance of a system of trails for horseback riding and hiking.

7. Assure that regional traffic demands will be accommodated in a manner consistent with the unique La Habra Heights environment.

8. Protect the Powder Canyon Significant Ecological Area.

"Protecting" the Significant Ecological Area means: no massive grading, no disruption of habitat, and no alteration of the watershed. Maintaining this natural area was a community goal even prior to Incorporation.

In November 1972, the La Habra Heights Improvement Association encouraged residents to attend a hearing on open space in the Los Angeles Basin sponsored by the County Planning Commission. The Board of Directors also met with Congressman Charles Wiggins on January 15, 1973 to discuss "open space, regional parks, [and] water problems unique to the Heights."

The May 1973 front page of the Heights Life suggests that readers "take a look at your home and your neighborhood. Make a judgment as to which way its value will move if the developers succeed." Residents feared what might happen if our private lifestyle and our open space were not preserved.

The "Community Development Committee" (CDC), which came together to develop the Plan, divided up its work among various subcommittees. Among them was a separate subcommittee solely for the issue of Conservation/Open Space. This subcommittee was headed by Gene Beckman, who served as one of the first City mayors after Incorporation and later became a founder of the Committee to Protect the General Plan.

In June 1974, the preferred plan of the CDC called for dramatically reduced density in the northeast corner of

the City, that is, on what was then a 509-acre Powder Canyon parcel. The justification for this special status was the fact that this property "offers the most significant wildlife habitat in the community." Moreover, "60% of the land is over 30% slope and [is] considered unbuildable without massive alteration of the natural terrain." High density development was found to be unsuitable for this property, which might fall under the Alquist-Priolo earthquake fault safety act.

In May 1975, Professor Ray Williams, a biologist at Rio Hondo College, and his field biology class received the California State Environmental Merit Award for their study of the ecology of La Habra Heights. This award, which was the top-ranked study out of 500 state-wide submissions, was announced with great fanfare in the cover article of the May 1975 Heights Life.

Professor Williams had been invited by the Improvement Association "to assist the residents with the conservation element" of the emerging General Plan. "The help of Professor Williams and his class," the article continues, "was of inestimable value in presenting our case to the Los Angeles County Regional Planning Commission. Professor Williams presented the research data at a Regional Planning Commission hearing held on

December 10, 1974. Seven hundred of our residents were in attendance ... Because of the effort put into this research, Powder Canyon ... has been designated as a 'significant ecological site' by Los Angeles County." This set the stage for the special status of this parcel and the historical attempts to save it.

In December 1975, residents were alerted to the possibility of Powder Canyon being turned into a landfill by its owner, Ben Abatti. Because of the enormous public outcry, this plan never came to fruition. In 1988, Mr. Abatti sold the property to Forum Country Clubs.

In August 1977, a County hearing on the incorporation process for La Habra Heights was postponed because Supervisor Pete Schabarum wanted to cut Powder Canyon out of our proposed City boundaries. This exclusion was vehemently opposed by residents for several months, and Schabarum eventually relented. But two other properties, namely the Chevron property (west of Colima Road) and the Unocal property (between Las Palomas and Colima, including some acreage beyond Colima), were omitted from the final boundaries that the County established for La Habra Heights.

The City of Whittier has recently acquired the Chevron and Unocal properties for open space (see the next column, and the map on page 5). The nearly simultaneous acquisition of the Powder Canyon SEA by the Preservation Authority is the realization of Goal No. 8 of the General Plan. Thus an open space corridor has been created that was envisioned twenty years ago by the founders of our City. Powder Canyon will remain within our boundaries and a precious part of our community will be preserved forever.