LAGUNA NIGUEL : Group Begins Drive to Save Ridgelines

Organizers of a new committee who are fed up with “unchecked development” will launch a petition drive today for a ballot initiative that would protect the city’s ridgelines.

If members of the Laguna Niguel Ridgeline Protection and Preservation Committee gather enough signatures by Aug. 7, the City Council can adopt the measure or move to place it on the November ballot. The group must collect roughly 3,500 signatures to qualify for the ballot.

The proposal calls for a 300-foot setback on both sides of ridgelines and would require that grading within 500 feet of hilltops be consistent with the slope of the land. The goal is to protect the city’s “environmentally sensitive resources.”

Committee members say the proposal is in keeping with California Coastal Commission and county regulations.

“We’re not trying to make any laws or change anything,” said committee co-chairman Richard Taylor. “We’re trying to enforce those on the books because they’ve been blatantly violated in the past.”

While many city ridgelines are already developed, committee co-chairwoman Donna Meehan said the ordinance could preserve other hilltops.

“We are concerned about the development that might take place, and we do not know to what degree the council is going to take care of it,” said committee member Paul Willems.

But Mayor Patricia Bates said the council is equally determined to preserve the city’s ridgelines and is preparing an ordinance that should be ready in August. The two proposals are likely to be very similar, and the one approved by the council will “have the strength of Gibraltar,” she said.

Committee members, who will fan out this weekend to collect signatures in city shopping centers, maintain that their ordinance is likely to have sharper teeth. And they say they have no doubt the community will rally behind them.

“This is a total grass-roots campaign,” Willems said.