Grand Jury Labels Laguna Niguel Hills Rezoning a Mistake

The Orange County Grand Jury has found that the Board of Supervisors seriously erred in approving development on 14 acres of pristine hills in Laguna Niguel and has asked the county to take “immediate action to rectify this mistake.”

In a letter dated June 9, the jury’s foreman, James Lindberg, said the supervisors voted to approve the development based on erroneous information that the land had been rezoned from open space to residential, when it had not.

Supervisor Thomas F. Riley, whose district includes the planned housing tract, said Thursday that the jury’s letter had been sent to the county counsel’s office, which will report back next week to the supervisors. An error has apparently been committed, though inadvertently, he said.

The supervisors acted on the basis of an apparently faulty transcript of earlier hearings by the county Planning Commission on Country Village, the proposed tract, he said.

Lindberg said he also believes that the error was unintentional, but he called it a “serious mistake.”

According to county records and information given to the jury by a group of Laguna Niguel residents who complained about the county’s action, this is the chronology of events:

The Planning Commission in November, 1986, rejected a request by Shapell Industries of Beverly Hills to increase the number of housing units planned for Country Village from 117 to 198, records show. Those additional 81 homes would have been on about 23.7 acres of open space that are part of 41 acres of unbroken hills in the middle of the Country Village plan--open space the Laguna Niguel residents had fought to preserve.

In December, 1986, the Board of Supervisors approved a resolution endorsing the Planning Commission’s rejection.

Two months later, county records show, Shapell went back to the county with a trimmed-back request to build a total of 187 homes in Country Village, including homes on 14 acres of the open space.

In October, the Planning Commission approved the 187-unit project. In that hearing, commissioners said the open space being considered had been rezoned for residential development.

No Explanation for Mistake

However, they later told grand jurors that they were wrong and that the property had not been rezoned, Lindberg said.

County officials have not yet been able to explain how the mistake was made, he said.

On Dec. 9, the Board of Supervisors approved the 187-unit project, accepting the Planning Commission’s action.

A Laguna Niguel group appealed to the Planning Commission and raised angry objections at a November hearing.

When the group’s appeal to the Planning Commission failed, the residents turned in January to the grand jury for help.

“The community has opposed it (the county’s reversal) because we value the open space,” said Cindy O’Neil, a member of the group. “We always felt that it was worth fighting for.”