ORANGE COUNTY PERSPECTIVE : How Grand Is This Canyon?

Laguna Beach should move forward with its plan to put a bond measure on the November ballot asking its 25,000 residents to pay up to $100 a year per household for the next 20 years to preserve Laguna Canyon--one of the last undeveloped coastal canyons in Southern California.

Without such a financial commitment, residents simply will have to live with a major housing development. A vote at least will give them some voice in the future of the canyon.

The measure would raise only $10 million--a small part of the more than $100 million that the Irvine Co., which owns the canyon, says it is worth. But passage would put the city in a strong bargaining position to shape the development and could generate other money to save the canyon.

The Board of Supervisors long ago approved plans for the Irvine Co.’s Laguna Laurel project, which is to include 3,200 housing units in about a third of the canyon. What’s stopping the project now is strong public sentiment and the Irvine Co.’s willingness to see if someone will buy the land.

Polling suggests county residents overall don’t care to pay more taxes to save the canyon, but local residents say they do. A vote will tell. Mayor Lida Lenney says that if a bond measure fails, she’s “going to throw my hands in the air and say, ‘OK, folks, I tried.’ ” It’s worth trying.