TEMECULA -- Efforts to annex nearly 8 square miles of wilderness south of the city have proved twice as expensive and time consuming as previously expected.

The city is poised to create a second report detailing the environmental impacts of the potential annexation of 4,997 acres of land that is largely occupied by the Santa Margarita Ecological Reserve and includes the site pegged for Liberty Quarry, a mining operation proposed by Granite Construction Company.

The city also will be more than doubling the amount of money it initially anticipated spending on the study.

When the city first entered into a contract with Albert A. Webb in March 2007 to draft the report, the contract was for $101,200. Six months later, the city increased that amount by $30,000.

Last week, to cover costs for the second report, the Temecula City Council authorized $85,000 more to be paid to consultants -- bringing the total contract amount to $216,000.

The second report was prompted by a barrage of comments received from residents, government agencies and businesses during the comment period in May for the initial report. The city is required by state law to study and address all concerns raised during the comment period.

Steve Brown, a principal planner for the city, said that, while about 30 comments were received, seven respondents thoroughly dissected the proposed environmental impact report, which called for a comprehensive response.

"We received a lot of comments on the EIR, not because it was poorly written, but a lot of people have an interest in the annexation," he said.

Instead of "patching" up the report with responses and new studies, Brown said the decision was made to move forward with "one refreshed document that flows and reads better. The new report will provide more information about air quality, the area's biology and mineral resources.

"We could have put together a series of documents that were hard to read, but that doesn't really do a service to the community," Brown said. "To create a better product, we started back over at Square 1."

Residents and concerned parties have until Monday to submit comments to Brown about what they believe the city should consider as they prepare to compile the second environmental report, which Brown said he anticipates will be completed by October. The document then will be submitted to the Riverside County Local Agency Formation Commission, which oversees municipal boundaries, possibly at the beginning of 2009.

The commission will determine where the ultimate borders of Temecula should be and whether to allow the annexation.

The city is seeking to take jurisdiction over the 7.8-square-mile area that takes in most of the Santa Margarita Ecological Reserve, as well as the site of the proposed quarry.

Council members have said the effort to annex the land is aimed at preserving open space south of the city and giving the council the authority to approve or deny permission for the quarry.

Brown said the effort to annex the area has been an intention of the city since the composition of the 1993 General Plan, which called for annexing the land south of the city for the purpose of preserving the land as open space.

City officials have said that one of their goals with annexation is to gain control of the land and rezone it for residential and open space uses -- eliminating mining as one of the permitted activities.

Gary Johnson, aggregate resource manager for Granite Construction, said he's not surprised the city is "re-doing" its environmental report.

"There have been so many different things that have come out of the city that contradict each other, I don't know what to make of it," he said. "This annexation is bad for the taxpayers of Temecula, bad for the taxpayers of Riverside County and for the taxpayers of Southern California."

In 2006, the council approved setting aside $500,000 to fight the quarry. Taking into account the latest increase for the environmental report as well as $185,000 the city authorized spending last year to conduct its own air quality analysis, more than $400,000 has been spent so far.

Johnson said that while the total annexation area is 4,997 acres -- only 700 acres are private land. The rest is state and federal.

"A majority of the private property owners oppose the annexation," he said. "The city is going to spend a lot of time, money and effort. And in the end, that land is not going to be annexed."

The land where the quarry would be located is under the jurisdiction of Riverside County and county planners are working on the project.

Contact staff writer Nicole Sack at (951) 676-4315, Ext. 2616, or nsack@californian.com.