What The $78 Million Will Buy : This Time, Donald Bren Treated as Hero

Once considered the bad guy in Laguna Beach, Irvine Co. chairman Donald L. Bren was given a hero’s welcome Monday evening as officials celebrated a landmark agreement to save Laguna Canyon from development.

“There were many months there that I did not think we would come to an accord. But the last few weeks I was heartened and we did, and I am very, very pleased to be a party to buying Laguna Canyon,” Bren said during a reception at Hotel Laguna that drew an estimated 450 people.

For environmentalists who have been battling for more than a decade to block the Irvine Co.’s proposed Laguna Laurel development on 2,150 acres of unspoiled canyon land, Bren’s attendance at the reception was ironic.

After years of protesting--including marching through Laguna Canyon and picketing Bren’s Newport Beach home--the environmentalists, city officials and Orange County Supervisor Thomas F. Riley and Bren jointly celebrated the preservation of open space.

The agreement, finalized Sunday, ended years of discord by allowing the city to buy the last undeveloped coastal canyon in Southern California for $78 million over five years.

“I believe the agreement is very, very fair. It’s fair from all sides,” Bren said as he urged the crowd to approve Measure H, a $20-million bond measure on the Nov. 6 ballot. If passed, it will go toward the purchase of the land.

The $50-per-person reception had been promoted as a fund-raiser for the Measure H campaign, which had been running in slow motion pending the outcome of land acquisition talks between the city and the Irvine Co. But the City Council’s unanimous approval of the agreement Sunday set the stage for the campaign and brought life to Monday’s festivities.

Supporters of the bond measure crowded into the hotel’s first-floor dining rooms and bar to hear the two sides exchange congratulations.

During an interview following his brief speech, Bren said he never intended to sell the property--independently appraised at $105 million--below fair-market value.

“But I believe that once we understood and we were educated by the Laguna community and they understood us, we were able to reach an agreement,” he said.

Bren also conceded that he was persuaded to meet the other side at the negotiating table after a march through the canyon last November drew an estimated 8,000 people.

“I was struck with that--the number of people who turned out. I believe the number and the sincerity of the people impressed me, and we moved forward with our discussions and our negotiations,” he said.

After his speech, Bren accepted a T-shirt from Laguna Greenbelt Inc. president Elisabeth Brown and donned a button that read, “Don Bren says save the canyon.”

Earlier, Mayor Lida Lenney predicted that voters would express their support for the canyon’s serene rolling hills and natural lakes by approving Measure H, which needs a two-thirds vote to pass.

“Even though $78 million sounds like a lot of money, the $20 million that we will get from that bond issue is not going to cost the individual homeowners in Laguna Beach more than they are willing to spend,” Lenney said. “I think that what they will gain from that will be much more than what it will cost them.”

If approved, the bond issue would mean a property tax increase of 6 1/2 cents per $100 assessed valuation.

City officials had feared that without a viable financing plan to purchase the canyon property, the bond issue would not receive voter approval.