Open Space Bond Vote Given Up : Laguna Canyon: Based on a poll of 700 county residents, officials have abandoned hope that the issue could carry. It was aimed to protect key areas from development by the Irvine Co.

Citing insufficient public support for the idea, county officials have given up any hope of winning a November open-space bond referendum that proponents had hoped might save Laguna Canyon from development, according to a report made public Thursday.

But while the county is abandoning prospects for a November vote, representatives of Laguna Beach and the Irvine Co., which plans to build homes around the canyon, are discussing ways to reconfigure the company’s proposal to save the most environmentally sensitive areas.

The company has long planned to build 3,200 homes on the 2,100-acre property, but the report said company officials “have expressed some willingness to consider” modifying their original development plan. An amended option could involve fewer homes and might concentrate them near adjacent Leisure World, away from the most sensitive areas of the canyon and its watershed, said Robert G. Fisher, county director of harbors, beaches and parks.

Company officials confirmed that they are willing to consider such a proposal.

“We are indeed willing to explore options and talk about project modifications,” said Dawn McCormick, a spokeswoman for the company. “That discussion is going on, and it’s been encouraging.”

Michael Ruane, county Environmental Management Agency director, agreed that talks have been productive and said county officials would favor a scaled-back plan that would not increase traffic around Leisure World.

A group of local officials, company representatives and area environmentalists has been meeting for months in an effort to hammer out a deal that would satisfy all sides of the emotional canyon debate. If no agreement can be reached, or if residents reject whatever bond measure eventually emerges from the talks, the company intends to go ahead with its development plans.

Most participants had originally placed their greatest hope in a countywide bond measure. But the county report released Thursday seems to close off that option.

The report, written by officials in the EMA, notes that a recent poll of 700 county residents found strong support for environmental issues but also indicated that residents’ willingness to tax themselves for open-space acquisition fell considerably short of the levels needed to pass a bond.

“The two-thirds majority vote required to approve tax and bond measures does not appear likely based on this survey,” said the report, which members of the Board of Supervisors will receive Tuesday. “Furthermore, these results indicate that joining a bond measure for open space with a sales tax for transportation would work to the detriment of both proposals.”

The report also notes, however, that public support may be strong enough to carry a more modest local bond issue. The June survey, conducted by a Sacramento-based political pollster, found strong support among Laguna Beach residents for a bond that would raise taxes by $100 a year for every city property owner.

Even at that level of taxation, a Laguna Beach bond measure could not be expected to raise enough money to buy the entire proposed site--valued at more than $70 million. The local measure could probably raise about $10 million, Fisher said, but canyon preservationists hope to stretch that money by soliciting donations from private industry, the state and the county.

“It’s kind of a matter of pulling it from here and there,” Fisher said.