Planners Ask Supervisors to Approve Smithcliffs : Development: Opponents of the 26-home project say it would endanger a butterfly roosting area, increase traffic and burden Laguna Beach’s city services.

County planners are recommending that the Board of Supervisors overrule an appeal by the city of Laguna Beach and approve a controversial 26-home development overlooking Emerald Bay.

That recommendation, included in a packet of material sent to board members Wednesday afternoon, angered opponents of the project, who argue that the 10.4-acre Smithcliffs development would destroy a winter roosting area for monarch butterflies and create a hazardous traffic situation.

In addition, Laguna Beach officials say the development would tax their city services--city fire and police officers would be responsible for responding to emergencies in the community even though it lies in unincorporated land--for a project over which they have no control.

“We have some real concerns,” said Laguna Beach City Council member Lida Lenney. “This project will create a hopscotching of services.”

Those objections and others are contained in a seven-page letter from Laguna Beach City Manager Kenneth C. Frank to the county. That letter was included in the packet submitted to the Board Wednesday.

But county officials dismissed those points in a detailed rebuttal and argued that conditions attached to the project will help mitigate the concerns raised by city officials and residents.

“Currently, the monarch butterfly is not listed as a threatened or endangered species,” states the county planners’ response, written by the Environmental Management Agency. Nevertheless, it adds: “The site has been identified as a roost for monarch butterflies over the winter months with an estimated population of 3,000. The total estimated population west of the Rocky Mountains which includes this 3,000 is upward of 10 million.”

Nevertheless, county planners said the project makes allowances for the butterflies, including conditions that require butterfly studies and prohibit grading and tree-removal activities during the migratory season.

Opponents of the project said those protections are inadequate.

“They are ridiculous,” said Jeannette Y. Merrilees, a Laguna Beach resident who has helped lead the opposition. “If they remove the trees on this lot, it’s going to destroy the butterflies’ habitat. They’re not going to be attracted to this area if the habitat is destroyed.”

Merrilees said she and other opponents intend to appear at the board meeting next Wednesday, when the supervisors will take up the matter. Still, she said she does not hold out much hope that the board will vote the project down.

“This is a developers’ county,” she said. “It’s very discouraging.”