Laguna Council Bolsters Case Against Canyon Housing Project : Development: Consultant’s report says research fails to prove housing plan won’t harm the environment.

In yet another attempt to stop the Laguna Laurel housing project, the City Council will submit to county officials at month’s end a consultant’s report lambasting the proposed development.

“I think there’s enough information to be able to prolong the decision about the build-out for some time,” said Councilwoman Martha Collison. “We need a lot of questions answered before anyone can think about starting the bulldozers.”

City officials have hired another consultant for $2,500 to study future storm drain runoff associated with the development site.

Tom Grovhoug, consultant with Larry Walker & Associates in Davis, arrived Thursday morning in Laguna Beach to begin his two-day analysis, said City Manager Kenneth C. Frank.

If given final approval, the Irvine Co. will build 3,200 Mediterranean-style homes, apartments and condominiums at the mouth of Laguna Canyon and widen rural Laguna Canyon Road to a six-lane highway, according to company documents.

Situated just outside the Laguna Beach city limits in the heart of the Laguna Greenbelt--a swath of rural landscape that separates the city from the rest of the county-- the Laguna Laurel project also would include an 18-hole golf course and a shopping center.

The project has been bitterly contested by the city of Laguna Beach and a coalition of residents’ groups and conservationists.

The voluminous environmental impact report on the proposed 2,150-acre Laguna Laurel Planned Community was released almost two months ago. After Oct. 30, the Orange County Planning Commission will review all written comments on the Irvine Co.’s Laguna Canyon Road project.

The city consultant hired to review the report said the documents left too many questions and failed to adequately address several potential dangers to the environment.

Terrel Watt, in a report submitted to the council, criticized drafters of the environmental impact report for failing to list all the possible problems.

In a City Council meeting earlier this week, residents expressed concern the development would send runoff--from pesticides used on the golf course to oil from the street----into the ocean through storm drains.

Referring to the runoff as the Achilles’ heel of the project, angry residents said the waste could pollute Main Beach.

“We’re the downstream victims of this project--our concerns were never addressed,” said resident Peter Bowler. “(They) never say where the water will go after it leaves the project.”

Bowler said the potential for beach erosion also was left out of the environment report.

The City Council discussion came a day after city officials met privately with Irvine Co. Chairman Donald Bren at the company’s headquarters.

It was the first time that Bren met with his chief critics, who have complained that he ignored their previous requests to meet.

Council members, long opposed to the planned community, have organized a march through Laguna Canyon on Nov. 11 and have staged protests near Bren’s Newport Harbor home.

But Mayor Robert F. Gentry said he was pleased with the Bren meeting.

“It was a very positive, honest and professional meeting,” Gentry said. “We both reviewed our concerns about the project.”

Gary H. Hunt, Irvine Co. senior vice-president, agreed.

“There was an opportunity on both sides to share . . . their respective views on the Laguna Laurel project,” Hunt said. “I think we both developed a better understanding with respect to each others’ concerns about the project, and I believe that any time you have that kind of communication it’s positive.”

Gentry said both sides have agreed not to discuss details of the meeting until a second session is held.

The two sides will meet again Thursday, Gentry said, adding only that the council members “talked frankly about what we perceived the people want to have happen.”

Many opponents have urged that the company sell the land to the city, which would then preserve the rolling hills and glens as permanent open space.

Others have called for further scaling back of the project over fears that the added housing would cause urban flooding and erosion in the environmentally sensitive Laguna Canyon area.