LAGUNA BEACH : Canyon Accord’s Signing Celebrated

Champagne bottles were popping Tuesday at the final signing of an agreement that will preserve for natural habitat and recreational use one of the last undeveloped canyons in Southern California.

Officials of the Irvine Co., which backed off from its original plan to build 3,200 homes on the 2,150 scenic acres, passed around T-shirts to environmentalists and Orange County and Laguna Beach officials who had worked years to negotiate a settlement. The shirts proclaimed, “We Saved Laguna Canyon.”

Under the agreement, the city and county will buy the acreage stretching along Laguna Canyon Road from Laguna’s eastern limits to El Toro Road for $78 million.

Payment for the land is due in installments staggered over five years, with the first payment of $33 million scheduled June 30.

City Councilwoman Lida Lenney said that although she is pleased by the compromise, “it is just the first step. We have five years of payments ahead of us before the canyon is saved.”

Also, she noted, a planning committee representing the county, city and various environmental groups will have to hammer out a plan for the parkland’s use, determining for example whether cattle grazing or mountain bicycling will be permitted.

In a related action, the County Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday to pay $7.6 million to Laguna Beach to complete the purchase of the 137-acre Sycamore Hills property that adjoins the Laguna Canyon parcel owned by the Irvine Co.

About half of Sycamore Hills is planned for open-space use and half to provide a right of way for the proposed San Joaquin Hills Transportation Corridor. Some of the same environmental groups that negotiated the Laguna Canyon settlement strongly oppose the highway plan.