Fullerton has received a $2 million grant toward preserving two neighborhoods in West Coyote Hills.

But the city can’t move forward with its plan to purchase those properties from developer Pacific Coast Homes until an appeal filed Feb. 2 by the Friends of Coyote Hills is heard. City officials expect the delay to last a few months.

The city announced last week it was awarded the $2 million from the San Gabriel Rivers & Mountain Conservancy, along with another $50,000 from the Henry W. and Ellen R. Warne Family Endowment Fund.

Acquiring the land adjacent to the Robert E. Ward Nature Preserve would create 217 acres of open space east of Gilbert Street, and eliminate 76 proposed units from a project that would bring up to 760 homes, a new commercial center and 10 miles of new trails to the Chevron-owned property.

Friends of Coyote Hills, which for years has championed the preservation of the entire 510-acre West Coyote Hills, took Fullerton to court last year saying the city violated state law and a 2012 voter-approved ballot measure with a plan that breaks the property into nine parcels, as many of which could be preserved as funding is available. Orange County Superior Court Judge William D. Claster ruled in favor of the city and its purchase plan.

The city acquired one neighborhood in 2015. The city is eyeing two others: one 10-acre lot appraised for $9.4 million and 14 acres appraised at $9.3 million.

Fullerton has seven grant applications it is waiting to hear about, totaling $6.5 million.