Hon Co. Bows to Neighbors in Scaling Back Tract Plan

Bowing to protests from residents, Hon Development Co. is scaling back plans to build 112 condominiums on an ocean-view ridge in Laguna Niguel.

Hon Senior Vice President Robert Hezmalhalch said Tuesday that the Laguna Hills company has reached a verbal agreement with the county planning staff to revise development plans for 56 acres on the northwest corner of Crown Valley Parkway and Pacific Island Drive.

He said he could not be specific yet about how severely the development plans will be trimmed but said the new plan may propose building substantially fewer condominiums or custom-built, detached homes.

The revised plan will be submitted to the county Planning Department within 30 days.

The revisions, he said, are intended to reduce the amount of dirt to be hauled from the site during grading. Neighbors complained that the original plan, which would have involved removing 1.2 million cubic yards of dirt, would create noise and traffic congestion. The dirt would have been hauled in 80,000 truckloads over 1 1/2 years on neighborhood roads to other home building sites, where it would have been used as construction fill.

Ken Winter, county coastal community planning manager, said company and county officials had discussed the possibility of scaling back the project for about a week. He said the cut-down proposal was confirmed Monday.

While plans for the proposed residential development are redrafted, Hezmalhalch said, the company will continue to seek county approval to begin grading 3 acres planned for 50,000 square feet of commercial office space, including Hon’s future corporate headquarters.