DANA POINT : Neighborhood Path Leads to Dispute

For 13 years, the narrow pathway that cut through the Galleon Way cul-de-sac was a shortcut for the neighborhood residents, especially kids going to Dana Hills High School.

But for Christopher and Lisa Lawler, whose living room and kitchen windows sat just steps from the pathway, the passing parade wasn’t amusing. And so, for $5, they bought the pathway from the city and fenced it.

But more than six months later, heeding a neighborhood outcry, the City Council has voted to buy back the land.

After admitting they should never have sold it, City Council members voted unanimously Tuesday to take back the 10-by-95-foot strip and repay the Lawlers for their troubles.

“We made a mistake,” said Councilwoman Karen Lloreda. “It is our obligation to go back and correct it.”

The Lawlers say they aren’t giving up.

“We never had a clue that we could get involved in something like this,” Lisa Lawler said. “It has been a total nightmare.”

For most of its 13 years, the tiny Galleon Way cul-de-sac has been a friendly, quiet neighborhood. That’s what the Lawlers believed when they moved there, as did the Wymans, who live down the street.

But since the Lawlers put up a fence and a “No Trespassing” sign blocking the path, the families have not spoken. Instead, their grievances have been aired at City Hall.

The fence blocked a route the neighborhood had enjoyed for years, said Debbie Wyman, the mother of four. The pathway leads to a small canyon and a shortcut to the high school.

“At first, we thought someone renting the home had made an error and didn’t realize it was a public piece of land,” Wyman said. “When we found out they had legally purchased the land, we got upset. How could that have happened without us being told about it?”

For Lisa Lawler, the fence was the answer to the nuisances that came with the pathway, such as people peering into her windows as they walked past her house and cutting across her front yard.

“Privacy is the No. 1 issue for me,” she said. “All I wanted is a private, quiet house like everyone else around here.”

In February, the city agreed with the Lawlers and declared the pathway surplus property. With the Lawlers’ promise to landscape and maintain it, the council agreed to part with it for $5.

That was before the neighborhood had a chance to object, Lloreda said.

“So many people came forward and told us that they use the path,” Lloreda said. “That’s when we determined there was a loss to the public by giving up the property.”

City Councilman Michael Eggers said the council “made a mistake based on erroneous information. We thought it wasn’t used and it was a mess. We didn’t know how the rest of the neighborhood felt.”