Laguna Canyon: Bargain Buy or Waste of Money?

I have thought long and hard about your editorial titled “A Pioneering Effort in the Interest of All” (Oct. 21) regarding the city of Laguna Beach’s proposed purchase of acreage in Laguna Canyon, and I cannot agree.

I see this as a selfish attempt to waste city and county money on a symbol.

While your editorial tells of “decades of unbridled and unregulated growth,” in actuality Orange County has completed two decades of the most bridled and regulated growth in the entire nation. While your editorial tells of “the rape of the land” and “pillaged canyon,” the development plans for Laguna Canyon actually called for a highly sensitive residential and golf community nestled in the hills with the vast majority of the land left as open space.

Yes, the Irvine Co. is to be commended for working with Laguna Beach, and The Times is to be commended for finally understanding that the company “has many of the same interests as the county at large.” But you are completely ignoring the 3,200 Orange County families who would be barred from owning a home in this scenic canyon.

Should the taxpayers of Laguna Beach and the taxpayers of cities in central, northern and western Orange County put out money which could be used for so many worthwhile human needs in order to keep a remote canyon in weeds when it would otherwise be landscaped with a golf course and greenbelts?

I don’t think so. Most of all, I cannot agree with the editorial that this is “a pioneering effort in the interest of all.” Rather, it is a dreadful misappropriation of funds in the interest of a few.

MARTIN A. BROWER, Corona del Mar