Default Judgment Against County : Laguna Niguel Project Foes Claim a Victory

A controversial new housing development in Laguna Niguel came under fire again Thursday with a local citizens’ group’s claim that it had won a legal victory in challenging the county’s agreement with the developer.

At issue is the sprawling 4,200-unit Country Village project on 1,232 acres northwest of the intersection of Alicia and Moulton parkways.

The project, which is already one-third completed, was approved under a 1987 agreement between the Board of Supervisors and Shapell Industries Inc. of Beverly Hills. The agreement called for Shapell to make a number of road improvements to handle more traffic. Among the improvements to be made was to extend Alicia Parkway, an important south county thoroughfare.

Last May, a small but militant Laguna Niguel citizens group filed a suit charging that the county had breached the contract because the promised road work was not being done. The county failed to respond by the legal deadline, and the citizens’ group said the county clerk’s office recorded a default judgment against the county on Tuesday.

County officials and Shapell Industries downplayed the significance of the default judgment, calling it a legal technicality that would not halt the project. The Laguna Niguel Taxpayers Assn., however, said the skirmish proves that the Orange County Grand Jury should again investigate the controversial development agreement.

Action Criticized

The Orange County Grand Jury investigated the development agreement last year and sharply criticized the Board of Supervisors, saying the board had granted development rights without the land having been properly rezoned. The jury said, however, that the supervisors’ action had been inadvertent, having been done through erroneous information, and it suggested that the board rescind its action. County Counsel Adrian Kuyper subsequently advised the supervisors that there was no legal basis to seek a return to open-space zoning, as the grand jurors had urged, and the development pact was not changed.

“I think everybody should be looking into this contract,” Paul Christiansen, president of the 80-member citizens’ group, said at a press conference.

Christiansen said the association has retained an attorney to seek further action against the county, which may include seeking an injunction to halt construction work.

Christiansen said the developer and the county supervisors either knew or should have known that completion of Alicia Parkway could not be done because a key portion would have to cut across federal property near the Chet Holifield Building in Laguna Niguel.

Opinions Differ

Federal officials, he said, have clearly indicated that they will not cede the land for road construction. It is likely, he said, that the parkway may never be built.

“The developer got everything out of the deal, and we in Laguna Niguel only get more traffic,” Christiansen said.

William Ross, an attorney for Shapell Industries, took issue with Christiansen’s charges. “Already the company has spent about $7 million in construction work on Alicia Parkway and Moulton Parkway,” Ross said.

Thomas B. Mathews, executive assistant to County Supervisor Thomas F. Riley, also defended the county’s agreement with Shapell. Mathews said that when the agreement was signed two years ago, the federal government had indicated that it would cooperate in allowing Alicia Parkway to be completed across its land.

“For these people (in the citizens’ group) to charge that the county of Orange was pulling a sham in its agreement is absolutely untrue and does not take recognition of the facts,” Mathews said. He acknowledged that the federal General Services Administration has recently been reluctant to allow Alicia Parkway to be continued through the Chet Holifield Building property, but he said that Riley is working with federal officials to change the situation.

Further Action

Christiansen, however, said the taxpayers’ group believes that the development plans for Country Village need further investigation.

Deputy Orange County Counsel Edward Duran on Thursday characterized the county’s failure to respond to the suit as an oversight. “The case was put into my files before I ever saw it,” Duran said. “We missed the deadline, and I take responsibility for that. But we will ask the court to set aside” the default judgment, he said.

Ross also dismissed the default judgment as something of a technicality that could be easily remedied.

Christiansen, however, said the upshot of the action will be that it will again focus public attention on the development agreement. Christiansen asserted that the courts will now have an opportunity to look into “this sham agreement.”