LAGUNA NIGUEL : Lot Owners Fear Effects of Initiative

Fifteen years ago, Tina and George McFarlin lived in a one-bedroom condominium and their newborn slept in the hallway. Two houses and one child later, the McFarlins plan to sink their savings into a 6,500-square-foot home on a Laguna Niguel hillside.

They bought the lot last year--a “little piece of heaven,” they call it--on a half-acre parcel in Bear Brand Ranch, a gated community where all lots have views. They invested the children’s savings in the property, Tina McFarlin said. If they ever had to, they would sell the home to pay for their children’s college education, she said. It was a safe investment, she thought, safer than a savings and loan.

But this week, McFarlin learned that a ridgeline protection ordinance supported by 5,000 residents could prevent her and her husband from building on their property.

Although other homes already have sprouted on nearby lots, McFarlin said city officials have warned her that a construction moratorium could be established if the initiative is approved, either by the City Council on Tuesday, or by voters in a coming special election.

The news floored McFarlin.

“All this property has been sold in good faith,” she said. “They’re going to be ruining people financially. You take a piece of property, you put your life savings in and they tell you it’s worth nothing. That cuts to the bone.”

Some observers say it is unlikely that an ordinance could stop development in previously subdivided areas.

But ordinance proponents say even they are not sure how far the protection would reach. And city officials, who are still researching the initiative, say ridgeline lot owners have reason to worry.

“I think people are just starting to realize that this ordinance as proposed may have far-reaching consequences, maybe beyond the intent of its author,” City Manager Tim Casey said. “And that’s unfortunate because we are now on a track that leaves the City Council no option other than to adopt this ordinance as presented, without amendment, or to schedule it for an election at some time in the future.”

The fate of hundreds of lots is in question.

Laguna Niguel senior planner Micki Harris said Friday that it is probable that individual lots will be affected by the ordinance if they are in view of “scenic highways,” such as Pacific Coast Highway and Crown Valley Parkway. Bear Brand Ranch is potentially affected, as is “very possibly any lot in Monarch Point that is not already built on,” she said.

“Any vacant lot up there that’s been bought by people who want to build a custom home could be affected,” she said. The deciding factor as to whether someone could proceed with a project might be whether a building permit has been granted, Harris said.

Erik Perkowski, a 37-year-old salesman, and his wife are trying now to cope with that uncertainty. They do not have a building permit yet but their lot is graded and they are ready to pour the slab.

“I’m sitting here renting with my four children waiting to get in the new house,” he said. “I’m dead if they stop me now. I’m bankrupt.”

On Tuesday, city staff will recommend that the council spend 30 days gathering more information, including the fiscal and legal effects of the initiative.

A city consultant has prepared an alternative ordinance, which would allow officials to consider each development proposal individually.

Initiative backers, however, say such discretion would amount to loopholes in the law.