MISSION VIEJO : Feisty Council Plans Suit Counterattack

The City Council will meet with City Atty. Doug Holland tonight to discuss a lawsuit filed against the city by its primary developer, the Mission Viejo Co.

“The new council members ran on a platform of independence to the company and we will be eager to demonstrate that independence,” said Councilman Robert A. Curtis, who endorsed two of the new council members--Robert Breton and Sharon Cody--in last week’s election.

Curtis, who earlier this year survived a recall effort that was heavily financed by the company and is likely to become the city’s next mayor, said the new council “will not be intimidated by this litigation.”

In a 16-page lawsuit filed in Orange County Superior Court last Thursday, the company declared that it has the right to develop several parcels of land scattered across the city. City officials have earmarked a significant portion of the company’s land for open space, but company officials insist that it has a right to develop the land under an agreement with the Orange County Board of Supervisors before the city was formed three years ago.

The company has asked the court to give it the right to go ahead with its development plans for the property.

“We’re willing to negotiate to sell the land to them,” said company spokeswoman Wendy Wetzel, “but the city cannot unilaterally take our land without compensation.”

At a council meeting Tuesday night, outgoing Mayor Christian W. Keena said the lawsuit was “part of a grand scheme by the company to force the city to buy the land.”

Reacting to the statement, Wetzel said: “We don’t care who buys the land. We are land sellers and we are willing to sell it to whoever comes up with the cash.”

It appears the company and the new council are heading for a showdown. The company, which planned and built the planned community of 75,000 people, had contributed more than $300,000 to the unsuccessful recall campaign against Curtis.

Wetzel denied that the company’s action was meant to intimidate the new council. “We were forced to act now since we have only 30 days to challenge the city’s environmental impact report which takes our land,” she said. “It’s unfortunate but we did not choose the timing.”

Curtis, a deputy district attorney for Riverside County, said the new council will ask its lawyers whether the city has the right to protect its open-space designations.

“If the city attorney so advises, we will assert those rights,” he said.