Laguna Plan to Use Tollway Money Criticized : Finance: Some say it is hypocritical to remodel City Hall by using funds made by selling right of way for the proposed highway, which the city opposes.

For years the city of Laguna Beach has been the lone holdout in county efforts to build a 14-mile toll road stretching from near John Wayne Airport to San Juan Capistrano.

By waging a single-handed battle against the San Joaquin Hills tollway, Laguna Beach has isolated itself from neighboring cities, arguing that the roadway would destory a scenic landscape and divert unwanted traffic to this southern Orange County beach community.

Of nine cities directly affected by the proposed road, Laguna is the only one to refuse to join the Orange County Transportation Corridor Agencies, the body that supervises tollway projects.

Now, officials are under fire from a local group of citizens over plans to remodel City Hall using money that Laguna Beach will make by selling right of way for the new highway.

“You might say it’s hypocritical,” said Bill Buckley, president of Village Laguna, an organization dedicated to preserving the small-town atmosphere of Laguna Beach.

At the request of Village Laguna, city officials will hold a public hearing today to discuss funding for the $2.4-million remodeling project.

Despite criticism, city officials say there is nothing contradictory about their decision to spend about $800,000 in expected highway money to remodel City Hall.

“It’s kind of like pre-planning for your funeral,” said Councilman Neil G. Fitzpatrick. “You may not want one but that doesn’t mean you don’t make some good business plans.”

“I don’t like that freeway anymore than anyone else but I might as well face up to the real world,” Fitzpatrick said. “We’ll fight it but if we lose, we want to lose under the best conditions possible.”

Added Councilwoman Martha Collison: “It’s not hypocritical. A lot of people disagree. But everything has been above board, openly discussed at public meetings and I don’t think the City Council or city manager or anyone else is trying to pull anything behind people’s backs.”

Few disagree that the City Hall quarters have grown too cramped after two recent annexations that required the hiring of new employees.

Yet some residents question the propriety of spending funds made possible through construction of the proposed highway, a project the city has gone on record as staunchly opposing for nearly a decade.

“I think what most people are concerned about is them planning to spend money that they don’t have and that we hope they don’t get,” said Carolyn Wood, president of the Laguna Canyon Conservancy, one of the environmental groups that opposes the highway.

Planning for the San Joaquin Hills highway has been under way since 1976 when it was added to Orange County’s master roadway plan. In 1978, rather than face condemnation, the then-City Council agreed to sell the county 140 acres of right of way in Sycamore Hills for an estimated $7 million.

Yet despite that agreement, city officials have unabashedly denounced plans for the toll road that would run from an area near John Wayne Airport to Interstate 5 in San Juan Capistrano, roughly paralleling Coast Highway.

When Sen. Alan Cranston (D-Calif.) came to town last week to tour the Laguna Laurel project area, Mayor Lida Lenney used the occasion to speak out against the toll road.

“The San Joaquin Hills tollway may have been a good idea at one time but at this point, it’s being called a toll road that will only be used by people with enough money to pay the tolls,” Lenney said.

Meanwhile, plans for the $541-million highway project are on hold pending approval of an Environmental Impact Report expected next fall, transportation officials said.

Barring a major public outcry, Laguna Beach could receive right-of-way monies in late 1990, transportation officials said.

“How they spend their money is their business,” said John Cox, president of the San Joaquin Hills Transportation Corridor Agency. “But now, the issue as far as some of us is concerned is that we are all working very hard to help the highway along and they’re not. That certainly rubs people the wrong way.”