Construction at Irvine Coast Begins; So Do 2nd Guessers

Past the jumble of beach bungalows and upscale shops of Corona del Mar, the black ribbon of Coast Highway verges southeast into a panoramic vista of rolling hills that dip toward pristine beaches, where tall grasses bend to ocean breezes.

It is the Irvine Coast, crown jewel of the old Irvine Ranch and one of the last undeveloped coastline stretches in Southern California, the subject of pitched battles between developers and environmentalists for more than 2 decades.

Now, an army of yellow bulldozers, earthmovers and water trucks can be seen traversing the hills inland from the highway, cutting a path for Pelican Hill Road, a major highway that will link the coast with inland Irvine and open the way for development of a Mediterranean-style resort community, complete with two golf courses, 2,600 mostly hilltop homes and up to four hotels.

Three-Fourths to Be Public Open Space

One might think the outcry of environmentalists was brushed aside for the ambitious development. Instead, 1 1/2 years ago, a coalition of local environmental groups approved the Irvine Co.’s revised plan for the 9,400-acre expanse between the glitz of Newport Beach and artsy Laguna Beach. The reason: The compromise will keep three-fourths of the area as public open space, including nearly all of the land on the coast side of the highway, except for an enclave of 55 custom seaside homes to be called Cameo del Mar.

Still, the development rankles some local residents who would prefer that the area remain untouched.

“I think it stinks,” said Marilyn Walter, 41, a physical therapist from Huntington Beach who on a recent morning had stopped at a small food stand perched on an ocean bluff, not far from the lumbering trucks and earth scrapers. “We may lose all the nice little things that give a pleasant break to our stressful way of life.”

Walter, who visits the bluffs three or four times a week just to relax, said she misses the cattle that until a few months ago had grazed the hillsides. The animals were removed because they were considered incompatible with the road construction and the development of wilderness parks, according to project officials.

Other foes of the developments have left behind a silent testimonial: A sign on Coast Highway describing the county road project has been repeatedly spattered with red and white paint by some anonymous protester.

Elizabeth Brown, a biologist and president of Laguna Greenbelt Inc., an environmental group fighting to retain open space, contends that Pelican Hill Road, in particular, will be “a killer” because it will be crossed by coyotes and deer that have been provided no other way to get to nearby canyons. She advocates bridges to straddle the canyons to minimize interference to wildlife.

But Irvine Co. officials, who are providing technical support to the county on the $40-million road project, contend that Pelican Hill Road is being carefully sculpted to do minimal environmental damage, in consultation with archeologists, botanists and paleontologists. And for more than a year, they note, archeologists have had the opportunity to dig up anything of historical value ahead of construction crews.

Concentrated on Inland

Irvine Co. officials also contend that from an environmental standpoint, their project will be far superior to coastal development going on to the south in Laguna Niguel and Dana Point, because theirs is concentrated almost entirely on the inland side of the highway.

Environmentalists who struck the deal with the Irvine Co. in October, 1987, generally agree that the best deal possible was obtained. In return for dropping a lawsuit, the coalition of eight environmental groups led by Friends of the Irvine Coast won added open space, speeded-up dedication of public park lands, lower construction heights, elimination of office buildings and a promise to put hotels farther inland from Coast Highway.

“I don’t think this massive an attempt to save contiguous open space has ever happened in so urbanized and pricey an area,” said Terry Watt, an urban planner with Shute Mihaly & Weinberger, an environmental and land-use law firm that represents Friends of the Irvine Coast and the coalition.

The current grading work began in February. By the end of the year, about 3 million cubic yards of dirt will have been moved to create the first half of a gently winding highway for 55-m.p.h. traffic. Ultimately, Pelican Hill Road is planned to extend more than 6 miles inland to the proposed San Joaquin Hills Transportation Corridor, which will intersect MacArthur Boulevard.

Later this year, the pastoral scene is expected to be further disturbed as grading begins for a golf course.

Five builders have already been selected to develop the first 966 homes that will go on the market in 1990, according to the Irvine Co.’s timetable, followed in 1991 by the sale of custom home lots and the opening of two championship-caliber golf courses, including four holes on the ocean side of the highway.

A large resort hotel with conference facilities is planned to open in 1993, the year after Pelican Hill Road is completed.

A Second Bisecting Road

A few miles to the south, another new road, Sand Canyon Avenue, will climb a slope called Wishbone Hill to gated communities of homes with 10,000 to 25,000 square feet on estates of 2 to 7 acres. One of these homes, Irvine Co. officials said, will be the residence of the company’s owner, Donald L. Bren.

While only the well-to-do will be able to afford the homes, Irvine Co. officials stressed that there are substantial provisions for public recreation and wildlife conservation in vast reaches of coastal and interior land. Dedicated for public use, these expanses are mostly invisible from Coast Highway.

Panoramic View for Hikers

Most of the land on the coast side of the highway, plus a large inland canyon, are already part of Crystal Cove State Park, which the state acquired from the Irvine Co. in 1979. There will also be a 2,666-acre county wilderness park, three separate canyon parks totaling 1,100 acres and 367 acres of golf courses.

The Irvine Co. is expected to deed the land to the county in phases over 10 to 15 years of development. The county will then allow the public inside.

Eric Jessen, chief of planning and acquisition for county harbors, beaches and parks, said that from the top of the proposed county wilderness park, hikers will be able to see “everything from La Jolla 50 miles to the south to Palos Verdes 40 miles north and beyond, including the Channel Islands.”

Planners are trying to keep the open-space dedications contiguous, company and environmental officials said, to reduce disturbance to wildlife, including coyotes, vast populations of deer, foxes and even some badgers and mountain lions.

But Laguna Greenbelt’s Brown said she fears that the existing delicately balanced ecosystem will be disrupted by building Pelican Hill Road.

The highway, Brown said, will cut off corridors used by deer and coyotes, forcing them instead into the path of traffic.

The Irvine Co., she said, could instead have built the highway on bridges where it crosses canyons so the road would not hazard wildlife. Brown noted that an environmental consultant to the Irvine Co. had once advised such a plan.

Study Called ‘Inaccurate’

But Carol Hoffman, the Irvine Co.’s vice president of entitlement for the coastal project, said the consultant study to which Brown referred was “highly inaccurate in terms of assumptions and conclusions.”

Further, she said, the cost for bridges to traverse canyons along 6.1 miles of roadway would be “astronomical.”

Hoffman acknowledged that “there had to be trade-offs” in the development.

For instance, she said, the company agreed to avoid construction in canyon bottoms, where vegetation and animals abide, on the condition that it may grade and build on ridgelines that offer scenic vistas.

Hoffman acknowledged that some wildlife habitat will be harmed by Pelican Hill Road, but she said every feasible effort is being made to protect the most significant natural areas.

Moreover, she said that Pelican Hill Road will benefit Corona del Mar residents by diverting traffic inland before it enters their community and that it will give inland dwellers better access to coastal parks, as well as an “awesome” ocean view from the highway as it winds to the sea.

‘Overly Generous’

“I think we have been overly generous,” Hoffman said, referring to the last round of concessions that the company made on its plan to win broader community approval.

Shute Mihaly & Weinberger’s Watt, while praising the persistence of her clients, also credited Bren, who soon after acquiring control of the Irvine Co. in 1982 began revising plans for the development, which was first proposed in 1964. The Friends of the Irvine Coast Coalition had lost their legal arguments against the plan in Orange County Superior Court but had filed an appeal.

Irvine Co. vice-chairman Ray Watson, who helped Bren rework the coastal plan, has said in his own written history of the Irvine Coast project that the revisions were not only more acceptable to the community, they also made the planned resorts and residential developments more marketable.

Now that construction is under way, Fern Pirkle, president of Friends of the Irvine Coast, said some of her members have called her to say that the bulldozing is “awful.”

But while she understands their point of view, Pirkle said she believes that “we have done what we can within the law to maximize the amount of land that is going to be dedicated to the public as open space.

“What one has to keep in mind is what it would have been like if the original plans had gone through. . . . This will always be an area of the coast that will be open, and people will have a good idea of what our coastline was like for thousands of years.”

Still, vigilance is necessary, Pirkle said. She promised that her group will watch closely over the next 10 to 15 years of development to ensure that the plan approved by the environmental coalition is followed.

“The natural feeling is to kick back and relax,” Pirkle said. “But anybody who knows anything about these things knows we have just begun.”