Laguna Canyon Fate Still in Doubt : Measure H: Early returns showed strong support for the bond issue to buy the land but were falling shy of the two-thirds majority required for passage.

In what may be the last chance to prevent development of Laguna Canyon, early election returns Tuesday showed strong support for a bond measure to purchase canyon land but were just shy of the two-thirds majority needed for passage.

The $20-million Measure H would increase property taxes to buy 2,150 acres of prime canyon land along Laguna Canyon Road. On a home with an assessed value of $200,000, property taxes would increase by an average of $59 a year for 20 years.

About 175 supporters of the bond measure gathered at the Hotel Laguna late Tuesday evening, waiting anxiously for election returns to trickle in.

“If all we needed was a majority, we could have all gone on vacation,” said Michael Phillips, executive director of Laguna Greenbelt Inc. and the Laguna Canyon Conservancy, two environmental groups that have led the fight to block development in the scenic canyon.

“For right now, it’s a good sign,” City Councilman Dan Kenney said of the early returns.

Laguna Beach Taxpayers Assn. President Jack Hefti, who led opposition to the bond measure, said the early results were “what we figured it would be. It’s just very close.”

Meanwhile, in the race for three open council seats, Mayor Lida Lenney, Councilman Robert F. Gentry and Planning Commissioner Wayne Peterson were leading the field of nine candidates, based on early returns and absentee ballots.

Expected to win easy voter approval was Measure G, which would direct the City Council to prohibit onshore support facilities for offshore oil exploration unless approved by a majority of the electorate.

But the day’s biggest vote was on Measure H, which would be a major triumph for environmentalists who have battled for more than 10 years to keep developers out of one of the last undeveloped coastal canyons south of Malibu.

Not until early October did environmentalists, city officials and the Irvine Co. agree on a plan that would allow the city to purchase the 2,150-acre Laguna Laurel site from the Irvine Co. for $78 million.

Although a strong anti-growth sentiment has swept the coastal village of 25,000 citizens, the final vote was expected to be close after opponents drove a wedge into the measure’s support by raising questions about the complex financing package.

Bond supporters complained early Tuesday that they could not find the measure on the lengthy ballot when they voted, prompting campaign workers to post signs at more than half of the city’s 36 polling places instructing voters to look for Measure H on the back side of the last ballot card.

If approved, the bond sale would go toward the first payment of the five-year buyout plan and would set in motion an intensive lobbying campaign to get additional funding from county, state and private sources. Also, the city has proposed another $5-million bond sale that would be backed by revenues from parking meters.

The Laguna Beach Taxpayers Assn. argued that the city’s resources could be better spent on basic services. And despite promises by city officials to the contrary, the tax watchdog group raised fears that as the funding for payments in later years becomes more uncertain, the city will be forced to draw on funds set aside for other needs.

The association’s campaign budget of $3,500 was a fraction of the $50,000 expected to be spent by supporters of the bond measure.

Leslie Earnest contributed to this report.