LAGUNA BEACH : Council Confronts Zoning Controversy

The City Council tonight is expected to hear the latest debate on a zoning plan for South Laguna, including a controversial proposal to preserve the Treasure Island Trailer Park.

Michael Kenney, president of Treasure Island Resident’s Assn., which fears the mobile-home park will be sacrificed to development, said he expects at least 200 residents to attend the meeting in support of making mobile-home zoning permanent.

“It’s going to be fireworks, that’s for sure,” he said. “Now we’re talking about major leagues; the rest was just a rehearsal.”

The mobile-home ordinance will be just one of a dozen zoning changes recommended by the Planning Commission since annexation of South Laguna in 1987. By state law, those changes must be adopted by Dec. 17.

Tenants of Treasure Island Trailer Park and Laguna Terrace, the two existing mobile-home parks in South Laguna, have packed previous meetings to complain that they might lose their homes if the ordinance is not adopted.

The 27-acre Treasure Island parcel overlooking the ocean was purchased in August by a partnership of Costa Mesa-based Richard A. Hall Co. and Merrill Lynch Hubbard of New York for $43 million. Residents say they offered the same amount to the previous owner, who rejected it.

The new owners, Treasure Island Associates, originally offered residents a 10-year lease that called for a 20% increase in lease payments the first year and 7% increases in subsequent years. Residents said such increases would force them out, clearing the way for a million-dollar homes development on the property.

The owners later revised their proposal to 10% increases for the first five years and 7% increases thereafter, Kenney said. He labeled the lease negotiations a “farce” and said no agreement has been reached.

Richard Hall said he will be present at the meeting to oppose the mobile-home zone.

“It does not provide long-term protection for tenants, and it is not the most sensible use of the property,” he said Monday. “It also prevents the city from getting five acres of beach in the future.”

Hall said he has been working for a year to reach an agreement with Treasure Island residents.

If no agreement is reached, city officials may defer final action to the next meeting, scheduled for Dec. 12.