Aliso Viejo Settlement in Jeopardy : Growth Activist Refuses to Sign

A tentative settlement reached last January in a lawsuit to block the 20,000-unit Aliso Viejo project is in danger of falling apart because a key slow-growth advocate is refusing to sign the agreement and is insisting on pursuing court action.

Thomas Rogers, who led the unsuccessful campaign for a countywide slow-growth initiative last year, said Thursday that he will not sign the settlement agreement even though lawyers for Citizens for Sensible Growth and Traffic Control and the Laguna Greenbelt environmental group, which brought the lawsuit, have strongly urged him to do so.

“I won’t sign it,” Rogers said Thursday. “Greg Hile has told me I have to, but I won’t.” Hile is the attorney for the slow-growth organization.

Rogers believes that his signature on the agreement is a key element because, he said, the Mission Viejo Co., parent company of the developer of the Aliso Viejo project, has made it a condition of the settlement. But Rogers said he believes the lawsuit still has merit and that he wants to pursue it.

The cities of Laguna Beach and Irvine, which had joined the environmental and slow-growth groups in support of the court action, signed settlement agreements with the developer in January. Terms of the settlement basically require all parties to drop their legal actions.

Planned Community

Aliso Viejo is a planned community whose lead developer is the Aliso Viejo Co., a subsidiary of the Mission Viejo Co.

The complaint against the Aliso Viejo development was filed in Orange County Superior Court to challenge the constitutionality of the project’s development agreement, which was approved early last year by the Board of Supervisors. Rogers and other slow-growth advocates argued that the agreement, and more than a dozen similar documents affecting other planned communities, were an illegal attempt to circumvent the countywide slow-growth initiative, which subsequently was defeated at the polls last June.

Taxpayer Benefits

The lawsuit alleges that taxpayers will not receive any benefit from the development agreement that could not have been charged to the Mission Viejo Co. anyway, during the county’s normal development approval process. Under state law, extraordinary benefits are required to justify such development agreements.

Hile said Thursday that he doesn’t need Rogers’ signature to settle the case, but he acknowledged that he wants Rogers to cooperate. No money is available to continue paying costs of the lawsuit, Hile said.

“He’s only one member of the board,” Hile said of Citizens for Sensible Growth and Traffic Control. “We can get other board members to sign, but we’re still negotiating details of the settlement.”

Rogers said he may try to raise money on his own to hire another lawyer to pursue the case. “The settlement agreement is terrible,” he said.

A Mission Viejo Co. spokeswoman said the firm would have no comment because “there are no signatures on the settlement” and the lawsuit is still active.