DANA POINT : City Planners Delay Decision on Project

City planning commissioners spent over four hours negotiating an approval of the $500-million Monarch Beach Resort this week, only to postpone their decision until Feb. 4.

At stake Tuesday night was the final approval of the 225-acre Monarch Beach Resort specific plan, including a 400-room, five-star hotel, 238 homes, a 27-acre city park and a 13-acre extension of the Links at Monarch Beach golf course. By midnight, however, the five-member panel could not agree on a timeline for the project, which the developers insisted was of utmost importance in their attempts to win financing for the resort.

“This is a very long and complicated process,” said Phillip R. Schwartze, a spokesman for the resort, which is owned by Japan-based Nippon Shinpan Co. Ltd. “This is just the initial phase of our entitlement process. We still have a long way to go, although we have moved quite remarkably. As you know, we have a very aggressive time schedule.”

Resort representatives have been seeking quick approvals for their project since presenting it to city officials last May. At that time, Nippon Shinpan representatives blamed lean economic times for the project’s redesign into a scaled-back version of a larger resort, which had already won unanimous approvals from the County Board of Supervisors and the California Coastal Commission in the mid-1980s, before Dana Point incorporated.

On Tuesday night, the resort owners heard from several homeowners in the Corniche Sur Mer housing tract, who claim parts of the resort will interfere with their ocean views. The homeowners won some assurances from the developer that their concerns would be considered at a later date when the actual site plans are presented to the city.

If the resort plan is approved Feb. 4, which appears likely, still further approvals must come from the City Council and the California Coastal Commission. The council has tentatively scheduled its first review of the project for Feb. 25.

Work on the project’s first phase, the development of the 27-acre Sea Terrace Community Park, could come as quickly as 30 days, Schwartze said. The park, which Nippon Shinpan agreed to develop as part of its negotiations with the city, sits at the southwest corner of the project, near the intersection of Coast Highway and Niguel Road.