LAGUNA HILLS : Pickets Protest Plan to Give Away Parcel

About two dozen irate Laguna Hills residents set up a picket line on an undeveloped, pie-shaped strip of land Tuesday afternoon, an area they fear will soon be unfairly given to the neighboring city of Mission Viejo.

The pickets, carrying signs that read “No Back Door Deals” and “Help Us Sup. Riley?”, claim that “a conspiracy” between Mission Viejo interests and the county will cost them the valuable piece of unincorporated commercial land near the busy intersection of Pacific Park Drive and Cabot Road.

The ownership of the three-acre parcel, now within the proposed city limits of Laguna Hills, is in the process of being transferred to Mission Viejo just before a Laguna Hills cityhood vote March 5, the protesters claim.

“We’re not so blind not to see what’s up,” said Bill Kogerman, a local businessman and former president of the Laguna Hills Community Assn. “In a word, it’s a conspiracy between the Mission Viejo Co. and the county. Why else were we not notified of these transactions?”

Kogerman said the land transfer, already approved by the Mission Viejo City Council and due to be voted on by county supervisors Feb. 26, has been kept secret from two county advisory bodies, the Laguna Hills Community Assn. and the Saddleback Area Coordinating Council.

“What we’re really asking is, ‘What’s the rush?’ ” Kogerman said.

The small wedge of land, Lot 223 on county tract maps, runs north from Pacific Park Drive between the west side of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway Co. tracks and Cabot Road. Just west of Cabot Road is one of the entrances to Nellie Gail Ranch.

While most of Mission Viejo lies across Interstate 5, a 49-acre strip of land east of the railroad tracks to the freeway was included in the Mission Viejo city limits when the city incorporated in 1988.

That 49-acre strip is the future home of a commercial development that will ultimately benefit the Mission Viejo Co., which is eyeing the property for development. For development to proceed, however, it requires access from Cabot Road across the disputed strip, as designated in a tract map approved in 1985.

Spokesmen from the Mission Viejo Co. and Supervisor Thomas F. Riley’s office both claim the land transfer is part of that 5-year-old project and should proceed without another 10-month delay for the Laguna Hills incorporation. Even if voters approve cityhood for Laguna Hills March 5, the area will not officially become a city until December.

“To ask someone (the Mission Viejo Co.) to forgo their personal interest that they have been working on for five years and delay that for another 10 months is stretching it a bit,” said Ken Bruner, Riley’s executive assistant.

Such sentiments did little to atone the feelings of the pickets, who called the potential land transfer “outrageous.”

“We stand firmly against encroachment of any kind into our community without our input,” said Randal J. Bressette, a Laguna Hills City Council candidate who joined the picket line and urged others to call the supervisors and express their disapproval. “We oppose any building or plans approved until a city of Laguna Hills has an opportunity to review those plans to ensure they meet with the environmental, ecological, health and traffic requirements of our community.”