city of industry
Visit our website on Tonner Canyon at www.SaveTheMissingMiddle.org
Tonner Canyon is the 5,700 acre undeveloped canyon that extends in a crescent shape from the 60 freeway on the north in Diamond Bar in Los Angeles County to the 57 freeway on the south near Brea in Orange County. It also traverses the City of Chino Hills in San Bernardino County. The land is owned by the City of Industry.
Quick Facts
- The City of Industry owns nearly all of Tonner Canyon, having purchased it in three major transactions over the last 30 years.
- Upper Tonner Canyon (aka Tres Hermanos Ranch) was purchased in the early 1980s and lies within the jurisdiction of Chino Hills and Diamond Bar.
- Middle Tonner Canyon (the former Firestone Scout Reservation) is within the Sphere of Influence of the Cities of Diamond Bar and Brea.
- Lower Tonner Canyon (the former Brea Cañon Oil property) is within the Sphere of Influence of Brea.
- The land is neither contiguous to the City of Industry nor within it’s Sphere of Influence.
- Over the last 30 years the City has spent nearly $1 million studying the feasibility of building dams in Tonner Canyon.
- The City is now in the process of buying the portion of Tonner Canyon that the Los Angeles Council of Boy Scouts retained when it sold the rest of the Firestone Scout Reservation to Industry in 2001.
Tonner Canyon is part of the unprotected linkage that connects the protected lands on the west to the protected lands on the east in Chino Hills State Park. With a broad flat valley and oak and walnut laden canyon walls, it is one of the most scenic and resource rich areas of the Puente-Chino Hills.
View a map of Industry's First Acquisition.
View a map of Industry's Second Acquisition.
View a map of Industry's Third Acquisition.
View a map of Industry's Fourth Acquisition.
Resource Values at Risk
The resource values of this land are well recognized by regulatory and planning agencies:
- Includes Rare Habitats
The property contains the largest and most dense oak woodlands in this hillside system.
- Boasts Special Designations
These woodlands qualified it to become a Significant Ecological Area (SEA) under Los Angeles County’s General Plan.
- Contains “Critical Habitat” for Endangered Species
Since U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service identified some of Industry’s land as Critical Habitat for the California gnatcatcher, it requires special management and conservation consideration.
- Connectivity
This is another important piece of Corridor and the only place where wildlife can migrate and roam between the conserved areas to its east and west.
Project History
- Illegal But Unchallenged Purchase of 2246 Acres Outside Of The City
In the early 1980s, the City of Industry bought Upper Tonner Canyon aka Tres Hermanos Ranch. They bought it with redevelopment money even though it is neither in the City nor within a redevelopment area. The land lies in both Los Angeles and San Bernardino Counties and is not contiguous with the City of Industry. No one contested the purchase.
Under the San Bernardino County Specific Plan in the early 1980s, Tres Hermanos was zoned for thousands of houses. Industry’s land was later “down zoned” to 300 houses under the leadership of Larry Walker, then-San Bernardino County Supervisor. Industry next began talking about building a water reservoir there. When the residents of the City of Chino Hills passed Measure U in 1999, the zoning for this property was frozen at the 300-unit level. Only a vote of the residents of Chino Hills will allow the number of residential units to be increased.
- Influence Peddling Won Out Over Conservation
In 2001, the City of Industry bought two-thirds (2,730 acres) of the Firestone Boy Scout Reservation in Middle Tonner Canyon. Conservationists offered the Scouts $1.5 million more for the land. However, under the leadership of Majestic Realty VP John Semcken who also served on the Board of the Los Angeles Council of Scouts, the Scouts accepted Industry’s lower offer.
- Land Grab Continues
In 2004, the City of Industry purchased the last large portion of Tonner, the 525 acre Brea Cañon Oil property in lower Tonner Canyon in Orange County.
In 2011, the City revealed its plan to buy nearly 400 acres from the Scouts, the last vestige of the Firestone Scout Reservation.
- To What End?
Industry has spent $800,000 over several decades planning to build massive dams in Tonner Canyon that will both store water and generate electricity. To do so they will need to bulldoze the entire canyon including the portion of the former Firestone Boy Scout Reservation they purchased. These series of dams require numerous saddle dams to prevent flooding of neighboring canyon homes (in Diamond Bar’s exclusive ridge top community, The Country). The most southerly dam would lie along the active Whittier-Elsinore fault.
In addition, Industry and Diamond Bar want to build a highway on Tonner Ridge to funnel Inland Empire traffic into Orange County. The road would effectively sever the Puente-Chino Hills Wildlife Corridor.
Industry's Reservoir Plan with the highway in red. (225 KB - PDF)
