Bulldozers Sculpt Orange County’s ‘Crown Jewel’

The rumble of earthmovers can be heard above the roar of the surf these days along the coast between Corona del Mar and Laguna Beach in Orange County.

The work signals the start of development of a 9,400-acre expanse of coastal land, the crown jewel of Orange County’s old Irvine Ranch and one of the last large undeveloped shoreline tracts in Southern California.

Development plans were hammered out over more than two decades of debate between the Irvine Co., which owns the land, and local environmentalists.

Finally, a year and a half ago, they agreed on a plan that will keep three-fourths of the area as public parks, including nearly all the land on the coast side of the highway, while still allowing creation of a resort community with two golf courses, 2,600 mostly hilltop homes and up to four hotels.

Now an army of yellow bulldozers, earthmovers and water trucks can be seen traversing the hills inland from Coast Highway, cutting a path for Pelican Hill Road, a 55 m.p.h. artery that will link the planned new coastal development with the city of Irvine.

The $40-million road, scheduled for completion in late 1991, will stretch 6 miles inland and link up with the proposed San Joaquin Hills Transportation Corridor, which will intersect MacArthur Boulevard.

The Irvine Co.’s project manager for the coastal development, Bernard Maniscalco, said the planned community will contain “some of the most expensive housing in Orange County.”

He said the company is working with “five major Orange County builders,” whom he declined to identify, on plans for construction of 570 “very special” tract homes.

Perched on slopes adjacent to Pelican Hill Road, they will sell at prices “in the order of $1 million” when they begin to hit the market in late 1990, Maniscalco said.

In addition, he said, the company in 1991 plans to open the golf courses, including four holes on the ocean side of Coast Highway, and to begin selling custom home sites, including 55 parcels in a golf course-ringed seaside enclave to be called Cameo del Mar, and large hillside lots with expansive ocean views.

On a slope called Wishbone Hill will be gated communities of homes with 10,000 to 25,000 square feet on estates of 2 to 7 acres.

Maniscalco said the company is also talking with hotel operators. Although no one has made a firm commitment, he said, those who have expressed interest in the proposed hotel developments include Marriott Corp., Stouffer Hotel Management Corp., Hyatt Corp. and Princess Hotel International. He said his “best guess” is that the first hotel will open in 1993.

While only the well-to-do will be able to afford homes in the resort development, Irvine Co. officials stressed that there are substantial provisions for public recreation and wildlife conservation in vast reaches of coastal and interior land.

Much of the canyon land yet to be deeded to the county over the 10- to 15-year build-out of the project is not visible from Coast Highway. It has been off-limits to the public while under the ownership of the Irvine Co., which used it for cattle grazing.

Park of the Park

Most of the land on the ocean side of Coast Highway plus one 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.

Eric Jessen, chief of planning and acquisition for county harbors, beaches and parks, said that from the top of the proposed 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. . . .”

Planners are trying to keep the parkland dedications contiguous, company and environmental officials said, to reduce disturbance to wildlife, including coyotes, deer, foxes and even some badgers and mountain lions.

Nonetheless, there are foes of the development who want more of nature preserved. A sign on Coast Highway announcing the Pelican Hill Road project has been repeatedly splattered with paint by protesters.

Wildlife Corridors

Elizabeth Brown, a biologist and president of Laguna Greenbelt Inc., an environmental group fighting to retain open space, said she fears that Pelican Hill Road will obstruct wildlife corridors in the canyons and force deer and coyotes into the path of traffic.

Irvine Co. officials, who are providing technical support to the county in construction of Pelican Hill Road, contend it has been carefully sculpted to do minimal environmental damage.

Carol Hoffman, the Irvine Co.’s vice president of entitlement for the coastal project, acknowledged that “there had to be trade-offs” in plans for the resort development.

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