Dana Point Cityhood Winning 3-1; Agran Forces Lead in Irvine

Dana Point was on its way to becoming Orange County’s newest city Tuesday night, with early returns showing a 3-to-1 margin in favor of an incorporation measure that would unite the communities of Dana Point, Capistrano Beach and coastal Laguna Niguel.

Slow-growth supporters of Irvine’s Mayor Larry Agran also appeared to be retaining their hold on the City Council majority.

In Westminster, a controversial rent control measure for mobile home parks was too close to call in partial returns.

In Dana Point, when early results of the incorporation measure were announced at the Wind and Sea restaurant, cheers went up from about 100 cityhood supporters.

“You try to have a voice but it’s difficult to have it with county government,” said Fred Brown of Dana Point Citizens for Incorporation.

28th City

Passage of Measure B means that on Jan. 1, Dana Point and the other two communities will become a 6-square-mile coastal city of about 25,000 residents, Orange County’s 28th city. Mission Viejo became the county’s 27th city on March 31.

Six candidates were leading the crowded field vying for five seats on the new city council early today. The leaders partial returns were Judy Curreri, Bill Bamattre, Eileen Krause, Mike Eggers, Ingrid Mc Guire and Chuck Chapin. Other candidates trailing by slim margins were Bob Moore, Addison De Boi, Howard Neufeld, Harold F. McGrath, Lynn J. Muir, Ed Conway, Peg Maynard, Richard D. Runge, Harold R. Kaufman, W.F. Smith, Geoffrey Lachner, Fred Mellenbruch, Ron Buchheim, William Walker, Louis Roberts, Tom Brabeck, Bill Kennedy, Madrid Uso Jr. and Brian Valerie.

In Irvine, Mayor Agran and two slow-growth City Council candidates appeared to be consolidating their hold on the five-seat City Council in early returns.

Agran, running to become the city’s first directly elected mayor, was leading by a clear majority. And two candidates seen as Agran’s erstwhile allies, Paula Werner and Cameron Cosgrove, were leading the field of five council candidates vying for two open seats.

Incumbent Sally Anne Miller was running a close third in early returns.

If Agran is elected mayor, the council candidate with the third highest number of votes would fill the remaining two years of the mayor’s council term. However, if ballot Measure D also wins, the third runner-up could be challenged for that term.

Of the early trend in balloting, Miller said, “you’d have four Larry Agrans on the council. He ran their campaigns from beginning to end. He wrote all their copy, he sent out all their mail.”

Agran, urging caution at the early returns, said Miller’s remarks “sound like sour grapes from a fading incumbent. I am sorry she takes that attitude.”

Whether she finishes second or third, Miller said, makes little difference. “My voice will be muted, but that doesn’t mean that I will be silent,” she said.

But Agran said the early results were “indicative of voters’ support for continued slow-growth and open-space policies in the city of Irvine that we have pursued so vigorously for the past two years.”

In addition to Measure D, another city ballot measure that would add 5,000 acres of open space to Irvine’s general plan appeared to be receiving overwhelming support.

The mobile home rent stabilization issue in Westminster has been an emotional one, and the vote appeared too close to call early today. Park owners have seen the vote as an opportunity to stop a trend before it gains momentum in Orange County. San Juan Capistrano has already adopted such a measure.

But Gerald C. Grimm, a leading supporter of the initiative, said the central issue was senior citizens surviving on fixed incomes in the face of rent increases.

In the Rossmoor Community Services District in west Orange County, a proposed ordinance that would provide for the maintenance and replacement of trees in the area parkways had a wide lead in partial returns early today.

Times staff writers Jim Carlton and Mariann Hansen contributed to this article.