O.C. All Set to Create Its Largest Regional Park : Land use: Supervisors plan first payment in purchase including land that was part of Laguna Laurel project.

The Board of Supervisors is expected next week to approve the creation of the largest regional park in Orange County, a 10,000- to 15,000-acre expanse that will include land once set aside for the controversial Laguna Laurel housing development.

Friday, county officials said the supervisors are planning to make the first payment of $2.5 million toward purchase of scenic coastal parkland at their next meeting Tuesday. The payment would clear the way for Laguna Beach officials to close escrow on the site later in the week with the Irvine Co.

In all, the property deal will generate about $78 million for the Irvine Co. over the next four years in return for more than 2,000 acres of undisturbed land that includes some of Orange County’s most scenic bluff-tops and ocean vistas. The Irvine Co. land will link other existing parks, preserving at least 10,000 contiguous acres that will comprise the new Coastal Greenbelt Regional Park.

Assuming that all goes as planned, the Laguna Laurel property deal and the creation of the Coastal Greenbelt Regional Park will offer local residents a wealth of regional parkland unrivaled anywhere in Orange County. The property will stretch along the South County coast and inland, offering an extensive network of wilderness and park facilities.

And, to the double-delight of environmentalists, much of it will be on land once destined to become a 3,500-home development.

“It’s been a long time for us,” said Elisabeth Brown, president of the Laguna Greenbelt. “It’s a little like the Berlin Wall. One day it looks very firm, the next day there are a couple of cracks in it, and a couple days later, the whole thing comes down. This is really great.”

Brown’s enthusiasm for the project was echoed by county and city officials, as well as Irvine Co. executives, all of whom set aside their differences in some areas in order to cooperate on the park.

“It got exciting and tense for a while,” said Robert G. Fisher, director of the county Harbors, Beaches and Parks Service Area. “All of us got a few gray hairs in the process.”

The creation of the Coastal Greenbelt Regional Park has its earliest roots in the 1970s, when local officials had hoped to persuade the federal government to establish a park in South County. But that proposal fell through, and years later the county granted permission to the Irvine Co. for construction of its Laguna Laurel housing project near Laguna Canyon, an environmentally sensitive area fiercely protected by conservation groups.

Faced with stiff public opposition to that idea, the company agreed to discuss selling Laguna Laurel and allowing it to be turned into a park. Laguna Beach officials, with support from the county and local environmentalists, joined the company in negotiations and hammered out a deal last year.

Tuesday’s action by the Board of Supervisors will represent the “last piece in the Laguna Laurel puzzle,” said Kenneth H. Bruner, an aide to Supervisor Thomas F. Riley, whose district includes the proposed parkland. “The supervisor is very pleased at the potential for another addition to the already extensive network of regional parks in Orange County.”

Under the proposal, Orange County and Laguna Beach will each contribute undeveloped land toward the Coastal Greenbelt Regional Park. The new park will then be managed by a new government office, the Coastal Greenbelt Authority, which will have two county representatives, two Laguna Beach representatives and one, non-voting representative of the state Fish and Game Department.

The authority is expected to hold it first meeting within the next month, outlining a schedule for development of the park as well as its opening day.

Fisher said he believes the new authority offers many advantages.

Rather than setting up several small trail networks for each park, the new area will be able to accommodate longer hikes, he said. Picnic areas and other park facilities can also be spread throughout the park, eliminating the need to duplicate services in one park after another.

“If you really wanted to do some trekking, you’ll be able to pick your route and your scenery,” Fisher said. “This will be the largest public open space in Orange County other than the Cleveland National Forest.”

Combining the parks into a single entity also has benefits for wildlife, Fisher and other experts said. Plants and animals are better protected in large, contiguous areas instead of small, isolated tracts.

At the outset, the regional park will combine county land north of Laguna Beach, the Laguna Laurel purchase area, Sycamore Hills, Laguna Heights, Aliso and Wood Canyons Regional Park, and a few other parcels. Later, officials hope to add open-space areas in Irvine to the new park.

If the park grows as its backers hope, it will expand from roughly 10,000 acres to more than 15,000 when it is complete.

“There’s nothing like this anywhere in the county,” said Kenneth C. Frank, city manager of Laguna Beach. “We’re all very, very excited.”

TARNISHED JEWELS: Laguna Beach will take over neglected ponds next week, to be part of new park. B1