Local News in Brief : Laguna Niguel : Developers Scale Down Monarch Beach Plans

The developers of a proposed $300-million resort complex near Laguna Niguel have decided to scale back their project in response to neighborhood complaints, even though the plans already had received all the state and county approvals needed to proceed.

The resort, known as Monarch Beach, includes plans for 850 hotel rooms, a golf course and beach house--all connected by electric tram cars on a bluff overlooking the ocean. The Hawaiian-based Hemmeter Corp., known for its exotic gardens and waterfalls in its Hawaiian hotels, proposed the project with the locally based Stein-Brief Group.

The developers told Supervisor Thomas F. Riley that they have decided to eliminate a planned 55,000-square-foot exhibition hall that nearby residents feared might be used for conventions that would generate excess traffic. They also reduced the amount of commercial space planned for the resort by 10% and lowered the height of its main buildings to improve the view of nearby residents.

Riley announced the company’s plans to scale down the project at Wednesday’s meeting of the Board of Supervisors.

Stein-Brief spokesman Christopher Townsend said the changes were made at the request of Riley, who was concerned about complaints of neighboring residents, some of whom testified unsuccessfully several months ago before both the Board of Supervisors and the California Coastal Commission.

“For the resort to be successful, we need a strong, long-term relationship with the community,” Townsend said, adding that neighbors of the project told him they were happy with the changes. “We’re here for good; it’s not like homes where you build them and sell them off.”