Orange County Elections : Laguna Niguel Vote: Future Seaward or Eastward?

For the 3,444 registered voters who live in 13 subdivisions and gated communities on or near the beach along Laguna Niguel, next Tuesday’s election will be a question of identity.

Inland or beach? Should they remain in Laguna Niguel or join with Dana Point and Capistrano Beach, both seeking cityhood in April elections.

Some believe the coast is part of Laguna Niguel’s overall identity, and they want to be part of a proposed city of Laguna Niguel, which would stretch from the Pacific Ocean to Interstate 5 between Laguna Beach to the north and Dana Point to the south.

Others fear that if they incorporated with Laguna Niguel their tax money would be used to build roads and support sprawling inland residential and commercial development. They think their interests would be better served if they were part of a beach city, like Dana Point/Capistrano Beach, where their tax dollars would be used to protect the coast.

With talk of luxury hotels in the coastal area and the accompanying tax base, a lot is at stake for the two proposed cities.

In May, the county’s Local Agency Formation Commission called for the special advisory election after an informal poll of coastal Laguna Niguel residents showed that a majority would prefer to be incorporated with Dana Point.

Although the coastal strip originally was included within the entire Laguna Niguel incorporation proposal, some coastal residents decided to poll their neighbors. Of the 3,444 registered voters polled by a small group of coastal residents, 50% responded, and of those, 85% stated they would prefer to incorporate with Dana Point.

“We believe we’ll get local control along the coast with a coastal city, as opposed to in a sprawling inland city of Laguna Niguel where they’re more concerned about an eight-screen movie house or a bus station,” said Jack Hollingsworth, treasurer and spokesman for the Coastal Taxpayers Committee, a group of residents who live within the advisory vote area and would prefer to incorporate with Dana Point/Capistrano Beach.

However, Citizens for a United Laguna Niguel--who support a joint coastal-inland Laguna Niguel incorporation--are using the slogan “Save Sea Country,” to convince coastal residents that the proposed city of Laguna Niguel considers the coast a part of its image and will need to protect it.

“For the past 25 years the coastal land has always been in Laguna Niguel. . . . We view this as a good old-fashioned land grab for revenue by Capistrano Beach and Dana Point,” said Dave Ellis, political consultant and spokesman for Citizens for a United Laguna Niguel.

While proponents of Dana Point cityhood would welcome coastal Laguna Niguel, they believe the “land grabber” label is unfair, because it was the coastal residents who initiated the special election.

Also, Dana Point has never included the coastal communities near Laguna Niguel in its incorporation proposals or feasibility studies, said Michael Eggers, a member of the Dana Point Citizens for Incorporation.

“We’re loved to the point where other people want to join us. We say, ‘Come on down.’ That to me is not land grabbing,” Eggers said.

Initially, Dana Point and Capistrano Beach planned separate incorporation proposals, but LAFC officials decided that combining the two areas would be more economically feasible for incorporation. The LAFC is the agency that reviews and recommends incorporation proposals to the Orange County Board of Supervisors.

Review Set Nov. 18

All parties involved are anxious for Tuesday’s election to be behind them so they can move on to the special LAFC meeting scheduled for Nov. 18, when the commission is expected to review the incorporation proposals and weigh the results of the advisory vote before designating the boundaries.

The advisory voting area in Tuesday’s election stretches from Camino Del Avion in the east to the Pacific Ocean and from Chula Vista Avenue south, to the northern end of Emerald Ridge community.

The 13 subdivisions within the area include Emerald Ridge, Cape Cove, Chelsea Point, Monarch Bay, Monarch Bay Terrace, Monarch Bay Villas, Monarch Beach, Monarch Beach Tennis Villas, Niguel Beach Terrace, Niguel Shores, Pacific Island Villas, Regatta and Sea Terrace Apartments.

The 3,444 registered voters are being bombarded with mailings, phone calls and doorstep visits from members of the Coastal Taxpayers Committee and the Citizens for a United Laguna Niguel.

Hollingsworth and his group have raised about $3,000 from individual contributions and are relying on their “grass-roots door-to-door approach” to battle their opponents’ mass mailings and telephone campaigns.

Although the Citizens for a United Laguna Niguel have spent about $20,000 on the campaign, it has raised nearly $60,000, including a $30,000 contribution from The Laguna Niguel Ritz-Carlton hotel, according to a campaign financial disclosure statement filed with the county.

Tax Projections

It is the tax money from operations such as the Ritz-Carlton and other proposed hotels and residential developments within the coastal Laguna Niguel area that make it so appealing. An incorporation study last year projected that Laguna Niguel, had it been a city in 1985-86, would have received $1.5 million in hotel taxes from the coastal area. That figure could increase to $4.4 million by 1991-1992, when other proposed hotels are completed.

Laguna Niguel cityhood backers believe its local government groups (the Community Services District and the Community Council) have protected the coastal residents from what they fear most--further tourist development of the coast.

“In contrast to Dana Point, which has been more acceptable in encouraging commercial development, we (Laguna Niguel) fear having an over-commercialized strip of hotels with the focus on tourism,” said Patricia Bates, a member of the Community Services District board who lives within the advisory voting area.

“A totally tourist city can’t survive. We are strong proponents for land use control and we have focused on coastal issues all along. . . . Our coastal identity is important, and if people feel an ownership to a concept or identity, then they are going to protect it.”

But Hollingsworth said some residents have come to accept the tourist development of their coast and would rather see the tax revenues go back into maintaining a coastal city than have them finance inland projects.

Consultants Hired

The most recent source of contention in the campaign is a report released this week by the Citizens for a United Laguna Niguel, picking apart the Dana Point/Capistrano Beach economic feasibility study.

The Laguna Niguel group hired the Christensen and Wallace Inc. consulting firm of Oceanside to analyze the conclusions of the study. Marcus Christensen said that the study is speculative and lacks documentation to support the revenue projections. He also questioned the methodology used by Harry S. Weinroth of HSW Associates, who prepared the study.

“(We) conclude that it is impossible to confirm the conclusions in the report,” Christensen wrote in his review.

Eggers defended Weinroth’s study, saying it proves that a Dana Point/Capistrano Beach city is economically feasible, with or without coastal Laguna Niguel.

“Christensen’s conclusion still doesn’t say a city of Dana Point and Capistrano Beach is not viable,” Eggers said.

The advisory voting area stretches from Camino del Avion in the east to the Pacific Ocean and from Chula Vista Avenue south to the northern end of Emerald Ridge community.