LAGUNA NIGUEL : Ridgeline Protection Issue Divides City

Residents on both sides of a ridgeline-protection initiative facing the City Council tonight agree on only one thing: its effects on the city could be staggering.

“The issue is fraught with complexities,” City Manager Tim Casey said. “It’s hard for us to believe that those who circulated the petitions and those who signed them at supermarkets and the post office could have been aware of its far-reaching impacts on the city and the people.”

The aim of the five-page, proposed ordinance is clear, its proponents say. It would ban development within 300 feet of ridgelines that are in “view of scenic highways” such as Coast Highway or Crown Valley Parkway.

“Our petition basically says that if any development is to occur within 300 feet of the ridgelines, a petition has to be circulated and the people have to agree to the development,” said Richard Taylor, chairman of the Laguna Niguel Citizens’ Committee for Ridgeline Protection and Preservation.

But the proposal has angered owners of hillside lots, who have been warned that it would prevent them from building on their property. In Bear Brand Ranch alone, a developer told the Council last month, 40 to 50 lots worth up to $40 million could be affected.

The ordinance also would affect large plots of land such as the 22 acres overlooking South Laguna owned by the Binion family and the 61 acres which Hon Development Co. owns next to Crown Valley Parkway, Casey said.

“The numbers are staggering,” he said. “We’re talking about tens and hundreds of millions of dollars.”

But the council has limited options. Because the proposed law was drafted as an initiative and signed by residents, the council has to either approve it or place it before the voters. Or they can postpone their decision.

City Councilman Thomas W. Wilson said he has been “deluged by phone calls. I think to say there would be a large crowd (at tonight’s meeting) would be an understatement.”

Both sides agree that in the past four months the measure has polarized this not yet year-old city.