Laguna Niguel Cityhood Winning Big : Incorporation: Voters give 7-1 support for 29th county municipality. They also reject district elections.

To the cheers and applause of community activists who for years had sought cityhood, Laguna Niguel appeared well on its way Tuesday night toward becoming Orange County’s 29th city.

“A long local nightmare is almost over,” said pro-cityhood worker Gary Kurtz at a jubilant campaign celebration at Acapulco Restaurant on Town Center Drive.

Early returns indicated that Measure O, the pro-cityhood issue, was leading nearly 7 to 1.

Denny Harris, an executive committee member of Citizens for Cityhood, said the results were even more overwhelming than expected.

“I was expecting a good majority for cityhood, but not this much,” Harris said.

After the vote is certified, Laguna Niguel will become a city Dec. 1, the same date that a five-member city council is scheduled to be sworn in.

Twenty-three candidates competed in Tuesday’s election for those council seats. The front-runners in the early returns were: Patricia C. Bates, James F. Krembas, Paul M. Christiansen, Thomas W. Wilson and Frank E. Hotchkiss. Candidates Mark Goodman and Larry A. Porter closely trailed in the early returns.

Besides apparently approving incorporation, Laguna Niguel residents in the early returns indicated in a separate vote that they want to elect future council members citywide, rather than in separate districts.

With about 40,000 residents, Laguna Niguel is the same size in population as San Clemente.

Tuesday’s cityhood election came after three frustrating years of effort by Laguna Niguel to bring the issue to the ballot.

In the mid-1980s, several South County communities began pondering self-government. Laguna Niguel in 1986 became the first to petition for a cityhood vote, but its effort became sidetracked in a prolonged intercommunity dispute about which of the potential cities would be awarded Monarch Beach--a 1.5-mile strip of coastline between South Laguna and old Dana Point that includes the Ritz-Carlton hotel and the site of another proposed luxury hotel.

Although Monarch Beach historically was part of the planned community of Laguna Niguel, the Orange County Local Agency Formation Commission had a prolonged debate about whether to put the lucrative coastal strip into the proposed new city of Dana Point or in Laguna Niguel.

Monarch Beach residents themselves voted in 1987 to go with Dana Point, but Laguna Niguel residents protested at the time--and continue to protest--that the advisory election was limited to an area favoring Dana Point.

Nonetheless, when Dana Point voters approved cityhood a year ago, Monarch Beach joined the old Dana Point and Capistrano Beach districts in the new city on Jan. 1.

Laguna Niguel residents, however, have continued to try wresting Monarch Beach back through a legal challenge. An Orange County Superior Court dismissed the case, but Laguna Niguel appealed the matter to the 4th District Court of Appeal. A decision at that level is pending.

Many pro-cityhood advocates in Laguna Niguel contended that the community would have a better chance at winning back Monarch Beach if Laguna Niguel became a city itself. “We need to become a city so that the courts will have a place to award Monarch Beach to,” Harris said.

The Monarch Beach issue was also prominent with the small anti-incorporation group, Stop Cityhood. Debi Larsen, chairwoman of the group, initially argued that Laguna Niguel should not seek cityhood until the coastal strip matter was settled in the courts. Larsen also questioned whether Laguna Niguel could afford cityhood.

But after a financial analysis showed last month that Laguna Niguel could easily manage the costs of cityhood, Larsen and most other Stop Cityhood advocates dropped their opposition. Larsen and Dennis Head, treasurer of Stop Cityhood, held a press conference last week at which they formally endorsed incorporation.

Kathleen Alexander contributed to this story.