Marching Through the Canyon to Protest Laguna Laurel Plan

In their full page ad (Nov. 11), the Irvine Co. promotes its planned development. Let’s get some facts straight:

* A big loophole in land use planning allows them to call a private golf course open space. Residents of Orange County and surrounding communities will not be able to hike, bike or picnic there.

* Traffic improvements require putting in a six-lane highway to their development from the San Diego Freeway. Who does this improve traffic for? You guessed it, their new development. In fact, when 3,000-plus additional cars from this development start driving to the beach, there will still be only two lanes from El Toro Road to Pacific Coast Highway. Massive traffic jams are inevitable.

If the Irvine Co. were truly interested in improving traffic, why not contribute a nice, safe bike path from the development to Pacific Coast Highway in Laguna Beach?

* The claim of protecting and preserving wildlife is misleading. Increased runoff from the development and the golf course will no doubt contribute to Laguna Canyon flooding as well as wash herbicides, pesticides and fertilizers down the same creek that formed the canyon in the first place. This rare habitat is a last link for wilderness chaparral, plants and wild animals. Wildlife will suffer and be depleted.

Realistically I might just prefer it if in the ad promoting the Laguna Laurel development the Irvine Co. stated the facts. Mainly, they own the land and don’t care about downstream property owners or the canyon and its natural history. The Irvine Co. apparently needs more profit, no matter what the consequences. Spare us the rhetoric in your full-page ad and make a true contribution to this area. Rededicate it all as a wilderness preserve. Save Laguna Canyon.

The Laguna Laurel project will ruin this majestic canyon forever. It is unnecessary, destructive and poorly planned, and canyon residents will suffer. The political process is failing us. Our politicians have betrayed us. And these are the true facts about the Laguna Laurel proposed development.

JOHN ALBRITTON

Laguna Beach