Court Opinion to Be Asked on Ridgeline Law : Laguna Niguel: Some residents claim that the proposed ordinance would affect their right to build.

The City Council late Thursday night voted to ask a Superior Court to “invalidate” an ordinance proposed by residents to protect the city’s last remaining ridgelines.

The council voted 2 to 0, with two abstentions and one council member absent, to ask the court to support the council in its decision not to take action on the Ridgeline Protection and Preservation Ordinance.

Councilmen Thomas Wilson and Larry Porter voted in favor of the motion, while Mayor Patricia Bates and Councilman James Krembas abstained, citing their ownership of ridgeline property as a conflict of interest. Councilman Paul M. Christiansen was absent.

The vote followed 3 1/2 hours of testimony by some of the more than 400 residents who turned out for the special council session.

According to the city staff, the council had three choices on the issue: Adopt the ridgeline ordinance without change, submit it to city voters at a future election, or seek a court opinion on its constitutionality.

Wilson said the city had decided on the third option “to remove the cloud that now exists over the city.”

During the council session held at the YMCA gymnasium on Crown Valley Parkway, the attorney for Las Vegas casino owner Jack B. Binion said that the Las Vegas union that has assisted some residents in promoting the proposed Ridgeline Protection and Preservation Ordinance has agreed to withdraw from the campaign.

The Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees International was involved in a bitter seven-month labor dispute with Binion, who owns the Horseshoe Club casino in Las Vegas and 22 acres of land on ridgeline in Laguna Niguel.

Binion’s attorney William C. Holzwarth said the union and Binion had settled their labor dispute earlier this week.

As part of the settlement, union officials have agreed to pull out of the city and to divulge to Binion who was in involved in the original ridgeline community. Binion will pass on the information to the city and to the Orange County district attorney’s office, which is investigating the matter, Holzwarth said.

Members of the Ridgeline Protection Committee, the proponents of the initiative, boycotted the hearing, with its chairman, Richard Taylor, calling the meeting a “political spectacle.”

More than 4,000 residents have signed a petition supporting the Ridgeline Protection and Preservation Ordinance, which would prohibit building on the city’s dwindling ridges without voter approval.

Other residents have protested, saying the proposed law would affect individual lot owners in partially developed communities, such as Bear Brand Ranch and Monarch Point.

On Oct. 2, the council voted 2-1 to delay action until another hearing could be held. Proponents criticized the delay, saying the normal procedure for initiatives under state law would have been to either approve the ordinance or put it to a vote.

At the end of the Oct. 2 session, all council members except Christiansen, who supports the measure, were presented with recall notices. Christiansen was presented with a recall notice at a later council session.

To encourage public participation in Thursday night’s meeting, the city bought full-page newspaper advertisements in local newspapers, mailed notices to 15,000 property owners and rented 500 chairs at a total cost of $9,000, City Clerk Juanita Zarilla said.

Eddie Rose, the leader of the recall effort against four of the council members, stood outside the entrance of the building and asked residents to sign his recall petition.

“This is a trumped-up meeting,” Rose said. “All these people here have been put together by the City Council to deny the people of Laguna Niguel their constitutional right to vote.”

Inside, speaker after speaker spoke out against the ordinance, saying that it would affect their right to build on their property.

The city staff has predicted that the ordinance could have a much wider impact, possibly affecting more than 1,000 existing homes citywide.