Coastal Panel to Hear Plans for Headlands

Thirty years after the Dana Point Headlands was first mapped by developers, scaled-back plans to build luxury homes, shops, an inn and parks atop one of Southern California’s last undeveloped promontories go before the state Coastal Commission today for approval.

Under the proposal, the majestic Headlands, which stand 180 feet above the coastline, would be topped by 125 custom homes, a 65- to 90-room inn and 40,000 square feet of commercial space, as well as five public parks and three miles of trails. About 28 acres would remain undeveloped for wildlife, with hiking trials on the perimeter.

The Dana Point City Council has approved the 121-acre proposal, but the Coastal Commission staff opposes it, as do environmental advocates who worry about the loss of plant and animal habitat.

The developer, Headlands Reserve LLC, cut back earlier plans after encountering opposition from environmentalists.

The new proposal calls for residential and commercial development that is less than one-third what is allowed under state law, and parks and open space that is double what is required, said company President Sanford Edward.

In 1974, the Orange County Board of Supervisors agreed to allow more than 800 residential units, two 400-room hotels and 27 acres of commercial development on the site.

But opposition developed over the years and, in 1994, Dana Point voters overturned City Council approval of a 400-room hotel and 370 homes on the site. The courts upheld the referendum but ruled that if the city allowed no development, the landowners were due compensation.

Ensuing plans have generated both support and opposition, in part because the land is one of the county’s last coastal open spaces and home to such species as the endangered Pacific pocket mouse and the threatened California gnatcatcher.

A new commission staff report expresses concern about lost habitat and reiterates that raising the height of a sea wall at the base of the bluff would violate the Coastal Act. Enlarging the wall would be allowable, the staff said, if the developer took other measures to compensate.

The sea wall helps buttress a hillside that was once the site of a trailer park. The revetment, constructed of large boulders, runs about 2,100 feet and is 15 to 19 feet tall.

Environmental groups say Edward’s plan to raise the wall 1 to 2 feet would make erosion worse.

But the staff did not close the door on the developer, suggesting 190 acceptable modifications. Among them: elimination of the inn and a faux lighthouse, and moving the sea wall as much as 10 feet landward to provide more beach area.

The developer has long sought an inn, and the lighthouse and community meeting facilities were requested by Dana Point residents to enhance the project. Moving the revetment and forgoing the revenue of an inn could cost the developer hundreds of thousands of dollars.

“Our staff is certainly not opposed to a development that contains an inn, lighthouse and community facilities,” said Karl Schwing, the commission’s permit supervisor for Orange County. “We just believe those facilities should be sited elsewhere.”

Edward said he’s willing to negotiate further compromises at the meeting.

The development has been approved by Orange County, Dana Point, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the California Department of Fish and Game. But the Surfrider Foundation and Sierra Club continue to criticize the project’s density, loss of habitat and the enlarged sea wall.

Sierra Club officials say they lament the potential loss of coastal bluff and sage scrub and 13 rare plant species.

But a spokesman for another organization said plans for the 27 acres of wildlife preserve would offer more protection than is now afforded to plants and animals, including pocket mice that have been found at the Headlands by federal wildlife biologists.

“It’s not perfect, but in terms of the pocket mouse, the proposals are excellent,” said Dan Silver of the Endangered Habitats League, which is dedicated to ecosystem protection.

The Sierra Club also objects to the sea wall expansion, saying it can be justified only to protect existing construction.

“Here, the multimillion-dollar mansions haven’t even been constructed yet,” said Mark Massara, head of coastal programs for the organization.

Pushing back the sea wall and topping it with a public trail is unacceptable, Massara said. Rather, he suggested that the developer alter the grading plan so no revetment was necessary, potentially losing a row of homes near the beach.

But Mark Johnsson, the Coastal Commission’s staff geologist, said opponents’ grading alternative failed to contain specific engineering solutions.

He found “no geotechnical reason” why the developer’s revetment and grading plan should not be accommodated.

Proposals to develop the Headlands were first put forward three decades ago, when it was owned by the Chandler family, the former owners of the Los Angeles Times.

The city is named after author and mariner Richard Henry Dana, who included passionate passages about the area in his 1840s classic, “Two Years Before the Mast.”

Laguna Beach Mayor Toni Iseman, an environmentalist on the Coastal Commission, said that with so much at stake, attention would be devoted to the plan’s details.

“[It’s] a huge piece of property soon to be opened for enjoyment, and it’s important we get the details right,” she said.

The commission will meet at the Montage Resort Hotel in Laguna Beach at 9 a.m.