Plan to Develop Ridgeline Rejected

A developer seeking to alter a small portion of the city’s protected ridgelines and build a 99-acre custom-home project has failed to win the City Council’s support.

At its last meeting, the council deadlocked at 2-2, with Mayor Kenneth E. Friess abstaining, killing the petition of Irvine-based Concorde Development to launch a study of a General Plan amendment that would allow them to proceed. Concorde is already embroiled in a lawsuit with the city over its right to develop the project at the end of Camino Las Ramblas at the city’s border with San Clemente.

Councilmen Gary L. Hausdorfer and Lawrence F. Buchheim had supported the developer’s attempt to at least study the idea, although Hausdorfer added that “it would be a long, cold day in hell before I would agree to remove a ridgeline designation.”