LAGUNA BEACH : Officials Discuss Canyon Bond Issue

City officials and Irvine Co. executives began meeting this week with representatives of several Orange County environmental groups to discuss a proposed countywide bond measure that would raise money to buy pristine Laguna Canyon so that it can be saved from development.

The 14 participants, called the Laguna Laurel Advisory Group, immediately formed a subcommittee to consider hiring a campaign consultant for advice on how best to present a ballot measure for the November election, according to Carol Hoffman, an Irvine Co. spokeswoman.

The Irvine Co. has long planned the 3,200-unit Laguna Laurel development in the canyon. But the project ran into strong opposition last year from city leaders and local preservationists, who contend that it would spoil one of the last natural regions in the county.

The development, originally approved by the Board of Supervisors in 1984, has been in limbo ever since.

In January, the two sides announced that they would ask the supervisors to explore the possibility of placing a bond measure on the November ballot to buy the 2,150-acre Laguna Laurel site. If approved by voters, the land would then be preserved as natural parkland.

“We wanted to bring in environmental leaders to discuss what kind of grass-roots support there would be” for a bond issue, Hoffman said. “There were a lot of questions and I don’t think all their questions have been answered.”

Groups represented included the Laguna Canyon Conservancy, Laguna Greenbelt, Village Laguna, Sea and Sage, Friends of Irvine Coast and the Orange County Environmental Coalition.

Hoffman said the groups will meet again March 27.