LOCAL : Aliso Viejo Settlement Near

A tentative settlement has been reached in a lawsuit that aimed at blocking the 20,000-unit Aliso Viejo planned community in south Orange County, officials said today.

Under terms of the proposed settlement, to be presented to the Irvine City Council during a closed session Saturday morning, Laguna Greenbelt Inc. and the cities of Irvine and Laguna Beach would drop their court bid to overturn the Board of Supervisors’ approval last year that allows the development in return for company financing of roads, a new fire station and other public facilities.

Slow-growth advocates argued that county supervisors “gave away the store” in the development agreement and charged that the document was a means of protecting the Aliso Viejo project from countywide slow-growth initiative, which later was defeated at the polls.

Irvine Mayor Larry Agran said today that the settlement would involve all parties dropping their legal actions, including a lawsuit claiming that Irvine’s participation was a misuse of public funds.

Sources close to the litigation said the tentative settlement resulted partly from enormous legal costs in the case and from the fact that grading of the Aliso Viejo site is virtually complete.