Laguna Beach Joins Irvine Coast Dispute

Laguna Beach has joined the territorial dispute over the Irvine Coast, acting to extend its sphere of influence over an area already claimed by Irvine and Newport Beach.

In a resolution adopted this week, the City Council voted to reassert its sphere of influence over the unincorporated area roughly extending from the city limits west to Muddy Canyon. The land had been in the Laguna Beach sphere of influence until 1981, when it was removed by the Local Agency Formation Commission.

Sphere of influence is a claim on territory that precedes formal annexation.

Tuesday night’s action brings Laguna Beach into conflict with Irvine and Newport Beach, both of which have claimed the area formerly under Laguna’s sphere of influence plus additional unincorporated land stretching up to the two cities’ borders, as part of their efforts to exert influence over a coastal strip slated for lucrative development.

Sphere of Influence

Laguna Beach’s proposed sphere of influence includes Crystal Cove State Park and adjacent areas, but not the section that Irvine and Newport Beach want that is west of the state park. That strip stretches along the coast from Corona del Mar in Newport Beach to Muddy Canyon in unincorporated land west of Laguna Beach.

“The only reason we’re doing it is that Newport Beach and Irvine have,” said Kenneth G. Frank, Laguna Beach city manager.

Frank said the other cities’ claims to the area were “really silly” and called their proposals “just a ploy” in their dispute over the coastal strip.

“It probably makes sense for it to be in nobody’s sphere of influence,” Frank said, “but if it has to be in anybody’s, it might as well be Laguna Beach’s.”

Officials of the neighboring cities did not agree.

Want Whole Irvine Coast

“We want the whole Irvine Coast,” said William Woollett Jr., Irvine city manager.

Irvine has petitioned the Local Agency Formation Commission to extend its sphere of influence south from its city limits to the Pacific Ocean, including all the unincorporated territory between Newport Beach and Laguna Beach.

Part of the territory, that south of the proposed San Joaquin Road extending east from the Newport Beach city limits to Muddy Canyon, currently is within the Newport Beach sphere of influence.

Woollett said, however, that Irvine would be willing to negotiate the area’s future with Laguna Beach and Newport Beach, as well as with the Irvine Co., which owns the valuable coastal strip.

Might Reconsider

The Newport Beach city manager, Robert L. Wynn, however, said his city might reconsider its proposed sphere of influence as a result of the Laguna Beach action.

Newport Beach has proposed to extend its sphere of influence east from Muddy Canyon to the Laguna Beach city limits.

The Local Agency Formation Commission is scheduled to consider the cities’ competing claims this year, with Newport Beach getting the first hearing Feb. 4.

In other boundary matters, the Laguna Beach council voted to incorporate several parcels of land on both sides of Laguna Canyon Road, the narrow strip within the city limits that links the city’s inland areas to its seaside downtown.

The areas include five parcels owned by the Irvine Co. on the undeveloped west side of the road, as well as the so-called Laguna Canyon Properties east of the road.

All the council’s territorial actions are subject to approval by the county’s Local Agency Formation Commission.

On Dec. 31, Laguna Beach completed its largest annexation, that of South Laguna.