DANA POINT : Ruling on Coast Strip Backs Park District

A judge ruled this week that a 1.5-mile coastal strip that includes posh Monarch Bay belongs within the boundaries of the Capistrano Bay Park and Recreation District, not neighboring Laguna Niguel.

The decision by Superior Court Judge James Smith means the park district will continue to receive the approximately $1 million in annual property tax revenue from the area--about half of the district’s $2-million operating budget.

The ruling settled a portion of a long-running battle between Dana Point and Laguna Niguel over control of the approximately 850-acre coastal area. The judge upheld the reorganization of the 25-year-old park district to include the coastal strip, a move that was approved by the Local Agency Formation Commission in October of 1988 and then challenged by the Laguna Niguel Community Service District.

“We consider this a major obstacle being hurdled for us,” said David A. Lewis, park district administrator. “Obviously, the revenue is very substantial for our district.”

The dispute began when the then-proposed city of Dana Point enlarged its boundaries to include the coastal area. Following that action, the directors of the park district voted in July, 1988, to annex the same coastal strip and make its district boundaries contiguous with those of Dana Point.

“It just made everything cleaner for the agencies involved,” Lewis said of the boundary change. “Otherwise, you would have had a municipality, Dana Point, with 99% of its parks controlled by one agency, ours, and with 1% controlled by another, Laguna Niguel.”

Attorneys for Laguna Niguel’s district challenged LAFCO’s decisions on both the city’s and the park district’s annexations, claiming more analysis should have been performed and an environmental impact report submitted.

Laguna Niguel City Councilman Paul M. Christiansen criticized the decision but stopped short of saying the city would appeal.

“The annexation took several hundred thousand (dollars) of our tax revenues, without a vote of the people, and gave it away,” Christiansen said. “We will pursue this to the maximum to get that money back to the city of Laguna Niguel.”