Laguna Beach Reluctant to Sell 137-Acre Parcel : Sycamore Hills: Part of the county purchase would be used for a tollway, but city officials argue that an environmental report is flawed and should be redone.

County officials are moving forward with plans to purchase 137 acres of land owned by the city of Laguna Beach, but the city has become a reluctant seller because part of the area is scheduled to be used for the San Joaquin Transportation Corridor.

In a 4-0 vote, the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday authorized staff to proceed with the purchase of 137 acres of Sycamore Hills, including 69 acres for the proposed toll road, with the balance to be used as a regional park.

The undeveloped land is located at the northeast portion of the junction of El Toro and Laguna Canyon roads.

The Laguna Beach City Council next Tuesday is scheduled to meet in a closed-door session to discuss whether it can, or should, back out of the sale, arguing that a thorough environmental impact review of the property has not been conducted.

The irony for the city is that if it goes ahead with the sale, it could get $7.6 million in addition to the $1-million down payment it received several years ago--cash that could be applied toward the city’s $78-million purchase of the nearby Laguna Canyon property owned by the Irvine Co.

City officials must also weigh whether, by delaying the Sycamore Hills sale, it creates the political risk of losing $10 million the county has promised to contribute to the Laguna Canyon open-space purchase. The county, intent on seeing the corridor built, already has warned the city not to file a lawsuit to block construction of the toll road.

The sale of the Sycamore Hills property dates to a 1978 agreement that was later changed to specify that the sale could not be completed until environmental requirements were met. Once the environmental review was finished, the county would have 10 days to notify the city that it intended to acquire the land.

Because the San Joaquin Hills Transportation Corridor Agency has certified the environmental impact report for the project, the county is meeting its agreement with the city to give the 10-day notice.

But corridor opponents, including Laguna Beach officials, have argued that the recently completed environmental review was flawed and incomplete and should be redone.

“My view would be that the county has not yet complied (with the sales agreement), that all the documentation on the road has not be completed, and therefore the conditions that were laid out in the agreement have not been met,” Laguna Beach City Councilwoman Ann Christoph said.

Councilwoman Lida Lenney also pointed to questions raised by the Environmental Protection Agency and other governmental groups.

“I don’t feel as though the county has complied with the environmental laws, even though the TCA has certified the EIR,” Lenney said.

Mayor Neil G. Fitzpatrick said that while it is “unlikely” the city could stop the sale of the land, the city could continue to challenge the EIR.

“At the present time, we are not planning on taking any action, but that does not mean we are not considering it,” he said.

Because legal challenges to the environmental impact review can be filed 30 days after it was certified by the corridor agency, a citizens group opposed to the corridor, “Save Our San Juan,” asked the board in a letter to postpone the vote until mid-April.

The supervisors offered almost no comment before deciding to proceed with the purchase.

But in response to the citizens’ request, county Environmental Management Agency Director Michael M. Ruane said the supervisors would not be asked to finalize the purchase until next month.