Community Voices

Coyote Hills or Concrete Hills? A View from the Next Generation

Friends of Coyote Hills Public Meeting in the Osborne Auditorium at the Fullerton Library on Monday evening drew a standing room only crowd of all ages.

I live directly off the beautiful nature reserve of Coyote Hills. Over the past recent years I have “observed” the games played by Chevron and the City of Fullerton regarding the effort of the public to save open space.

The open space in Coyote hills is a very rare thing, being one of the very few open spaces left in orange county and the surrounding area, we must work hard to protect it and not let people who just want to make money take it away.

Recently, on Monday the 25th of February, I attended a Friends of Coyote Hills meeting at the Fullerton Public Library. About 150 people attended the event.

Out of the many statistics provided during that meeting, I learned that the average number of people per square mile of open space in our city is roughly 210! (Though within 7 miles of West Coyote  Hills there is only 1 acre per 356 people while the National Recreation and Parks Association standard for parkland is 1 acre per 100 people).  South Orange County areas are not as densely populated, and have only 6 people per acre.

As one of the many citizens in Fullerton supporting  saving open space in Coyote Hills, I beg that no more houses be built, especially on this amazing land that we so dearly cherish. If you are one of the many citizens supporting this same conclusion to the long battle over land, I beg you to write to some important people or organizations that are taking the wrong approach to what to do with our land.

One of the main reasons why no one should build more houses, is because homes in neighborhoods surrounding Coyote Hills, like mine, have proven to be on, or near faults. Why build hundreds of more homes, when our current homes are being shaken?

A few years ago certain parts of Orange County and the surrounding areas (including the City of Fullerton), were shaken with a huge earthquake, and roughly 200 aftershocks following it. This land is unsafe to build on and the proposal of more homes will just bring more chaos including overpopulation, water supply issues, traffic, and not enough schools!

Please follow me in the journey to save Coyote Hills. Some of the main things that would help our community would be for all the youth possible, to write a letter addressing this urgent situation.

If I, a seventh grader can do it, then anyone can!
For more information, including suggestions on who to write to, please visit the website www.savecoyotehills.org

 


6 replies »

  1. Very well written. I look forward to more articles from Nathan Guerrero.

  2. I have just published another one, will be on this website in 2 weeks max

  3. Thank you, Nathan, for attending our meeting and for adding your voice to this issue. Looking at issues through young people’s eyes can add so much clarity and truth to issues.

  4. Thank you for the facts concerning the space per person in regard to Coyote Hills, It was an informative article.