New Talks Urged on Laguna’s Bid for Canyon Tract

A Laguna Beach commission will recommend that the city reopen talks with owners of a 195-acre Laguna Canyon hillside, even though the talks could lead to limited development in an area earmarked for permanent preservation.

The Laguna Beach Open Space Commission is recommending that the city staff shelve a plan to wrest control of the land from the owner through eminent domain. City officials had announced earlier this month that they were considering taking the rural property, which lies along the border of the Aliso/Wood Canyon Regional Park, where Laguna Canyon and El Toro roads meet.

As part of the Laguna Open Space Plan, city officials are trying to buy up to 26 parcels of private land to stop development in Laguna Canyon, a rugged countryside that separates the city from large-scale developments in Laguna Niguel and Aliso Viejo.

Eminent domain proceedings against the co-owners of the 195-acre tract, Alice Platz of Arizona and John E. De Witt, a San Gabriel Valley oil merchant, were considered necessary because negotiations had stalled, Deputy City Manager Rob Clark said.

But after about 20 angry Laguna Canyon residents converged on a public hearing Wednesday night to argue against the use of eminent domain, members of the Open Space Commission decided that the city staff should reopen negotiations.

“I think it’s agreed that we should use eminent domain only as a last resort,” commission Chairman Wayne Ybarra said.

In a departure from a staunch anti-development philosophy, members of the Laguna Canyon Property Owners Assn. and the Laguna Beach Conservancy urged city officials to reconsider an unusual proposal by DeWitt.

Earlier this year, DeWitt offered to donate 177 acres of the property to the city to add to the protected Laguna Greenbelt, in exchange for the right to develop 18 acres with frontage on Laguna Canyon Road. He has suggested building homes or a light manufacturing center.

Residents complained that by rejecting the proposal and going ahead with eminent domain proceedings, the city would unnecessarily spend millions of dollars and tie city attorneys up in court for years. They estimated that eminent domain proceedings could cost the city up to $5 million.

‘A Very Good Idea’

“We think that the (DeWitt) offer is a generous one,” said Sandy Lucas, president of Laguna Canyon Property Owners Assn. “We continue to think that it is a very good idea.”

Resident Bill Swenson added: “I don’t think people in Laguna Beach are comfortable with the city taking property. The city would make a much better name for itself if it conducted negotiations.”

On Tuesday, the City Council will consider the Open Space Commission’s recommendation. The council will choose one of three options.

Mayor Robert F. Gentry said that the council may ignore the recommendation and order the staff to go ahead with eminent domain, a process by which public agencies may buy private property at fair market value for the public good, without the owner’s consent.

The council may also reopen negotiations with DeWitt, who already has rejected a city offer of $1 million for the land. He reportedly was asking for $2.5 million. Or the council may approve DeWitt’s proposed deal, Gentry said. But that option, he said, is highly unlikely because DeWitt has not formally resubmitted it.

Land Part of Annexation

“It is incredible that the city is considering spending $1 million when it could have most of the land for nothing,” said association member John Hamil at the hearing.

At the recommendation of city staff, the council first rejected the DeWitt proposal during hearings before the city’s annexation of county land up to El Toro Road, Gentry said. The DeWitt/Platz property was included in that annexation in June, which was undertaken as part of the Open Space Plan.

Although declining to say which option he preferred, Gentry said: “I will listen very carefully to the recommendation of the Open Space Commission. This is a very important piece of land and should be totally or partially included in the Open Space Plan.”

But he called the DeWitt proposal a “viable plan.”

“It depends on what kind of development he plans for the property,” Gentry said. “My goal is to keep the canyon as rural as possible.”

DeWitt said Thursday that he probably would propose a deal that would deed the entire hillside area and most of the lowland to the city. But he declined to say what he would build on the frontage area.