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LAGUNA BEACH : City Enlists Help on Smithcliffs Issue

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Determined to control the development of a 10-acre oceanfront bluff, the city has hired a San Juan Capistrano councilman as a consultant to help it in a tug-of-war for building rights at the site, which borders the city near its northern end.

Phillip Schwartze, a San Juan Capistrano councilman who is a real estate consultant and former member of the Local Agency Formation Commission, will be paid up to $15,000 to help Laguna Beach officials prepare for a LAFCO hearing expected to be held in September. LAFCO is a county agency that rules on incorporations, annexations and spheres of influence.

Last month, construction magnate Gary Brinderson, who owns the exclusive property known as Smithcliffs, hired government relations consultant and former Irvine Co. employee Lauren Goodman Packard for similar purposes.

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Smithcliffs, like neighboring Emerald Bay, lies in unincorporated territory, but the city maintains it is virtually surrounded by Laguna Beach and falls within the city’s sphere of influence. County officials, who now have jurisdiction over the property, for the past year have been considering a proposal from Brinderson to develop 26 homes on the site.

In a move that infuriated City Manager Kenneth C. Frank, the Irvine Ranch Water District in March allied itself with Brinderson, offering to supply sewer service that would otherwise be provided by the city. LAFCO must approve the sewer annexation.

The general manager of Aliso Water Management Agency, which owns water treatment and disposal facilities for the area, will meet this week with officials from the city and the Irvine Ranch district to discuss capacity rights to sewer lines along Coast Highway.

By a unanimous vote last week, the Laguna Beach City Council reiterated that any development at Smithcliffs should occur only after the area is annexed to the city, an option already rejected by Brinderson. The issue, Frank said, “is of such magnitude” that hiring Schwartze--a clear escalation in the city’s struggle--became necessary.

Smithcliffs, with its gray stucco mansion and a colorful past, was purchased by Brinderson for a reported $15 million five years ago. It was named by Los Angeles oilman Lon Smith, one of the previous owners. Some neighbors, who say their privacy will vanish if 26 homes are built as planned, had hoped the property would remain a family compound.

Laguna Beach residents gathered 200 signatures on a petition to protest the development, which they say will also block views and increase traffic, and they welcome the city’s heightened involvement. Jeannette Merrilees, whose McKnight Drive home backs up to the estate, said city standards would prohibit the grading currently being proposed for the site.

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“If it were processed in the city of Laguna Beach as it logically and practically should be, none of these other concerns would bother us at all because the city would be taking care of us,” Merrilees said. “It’s because the city is unable to put any control on this development, which is essentially in its lap, that we have to take our concerns to the county.”

According to Kenneth Winter, land planning manager for the county Environmental Management Agency, an environmental report on the project should be released today. Orange County Planning Commission hearings are likely to begin in 12 to 18 weeks, he said. Providing LAFCO approves the sewer annexation, the county will have the last word on the development, Winter said.

“The county decision is final unless it is appealed to the (California) Coastal Commission,” he said. “The city has had input through the ability to comment on the environmental documentation.”

Brinderson Construction, which builds U.S. naval shipyards, also is the builder of the 14-story Brinderson Towers on MacArthur Boulevard in Irvine.

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