Purchase of Laguna Canyon Is Approved : Environment: Beach city’s council OKs $78 million to preserve the Southland’s last undeveloped coastal canyon. Voters must pass a $20-million bond issue, the key to the plan.

After several days of intense negotiations and soul searching, the City Council here voted unanimously Sunday to buy 2,150 acres in Laguna Canyon for $78 million and commit the city to an unprecedented land conservation plan that protects Southern California’s last undeveloped coastal canyon.

By agreeing to purchase the Laguna Laurel tract from the Irvine Co. over a five-year period, the city is effectively ending a proposed 3,200-unit development in order to preserve the canyon as open space.

“It was not an easy decision because it represents a serious commitment on the part of the people of the city and the people of the county to come up with a significant amount of money,” Mayor Lida Lenney said. “But the feeling of the council is that this property is worth it and we very much appreciate the kind of help we had from the Irvine Co. in reaching this kind of agreement, and we are ready to move forward.”

The anchor for the city’s purchase plan is a $20-million bond issue on the Nov. 6 ballot that will require the approval of two-thirds of Laguna Beach voters. Although citizens have previously demonstrated their strong sentiments in favor of saving the picturesque canyon from development, city officials were hard-pressed to come up with a viable financing plan that would meet voters’ scrutiny.

“I do not know of any city that has taken on the responsibility of using its good faith and credit to purchase open space,” Irvine Co. Senior Vice President Gary Hunt said after the final negotiating session Sunday. “There’s no question in my mind that this is a milestone.”

Paul Freeman, who was hired by both sides to forge a compromise, said the pact is also “a milestone in terms of dispute resolution involving historically contentious interests.”

Environmentalists bitterly battled the company for more than a decade to protect the pristine landscape of rolling pasture, rugged cliffs and increasingly rare coastal sage habitat that is home to many threatened wildlife species.

Celebrities such as actresses Bette Midler and Julie Harris joined the effort to save the canyon and local artists held “paint-ins” to protest planned destruction of the scenery. Others volunteered as body blocks to bulldozers.

In a show of solidarity last November, more than 7,000 placard-carrying protesters--estimates range as high as 8,500--converged on winding Laguna Canyon Road to denounce the Irvine Co. and its proposed development.

“It was a win-win for everybody,” Carolyn Wood, president of the Laguna Canyon Conservancy, said after Sunday’s final negotiating session.

Although a tentative agreement had been reached last week by the Laguna Laurel Advisory Group--which represents the city, the developer and environmentalists--tempers flared later when the city pressed for more concessions.

Officials said delicate negotiations during the final 48 hours of talks helped seal the agreement that was unanimously approved during a special closed-door session of the council and immediately ratified by the negotiating team.

The final pact is similar to the agreement hammered out by the advisory group last Tuesday. The $78-million price tag for the land, which was independently appraised at $105 million, remained unchanged. The five-year payment schedule of $33 million, $3 million, $4 million, $5 million and $33 million--with the first payment due next June--also remained unchanged.

However, an added feature gives the city the option of paying up to $40 million in the first year in order to purchase all of the Laguna Laurel property on the west side of Laguna Canyon Road, or slightly more than 90% of the project site, which includes some of the most environmentally sensitive land.

Once the city’s payments reach $45 million, it will also acquire the property’s three lakes--the only natural lakes in Orange County.

If the city defaults on its payments, the company will have the right to resume development plans.