Dream of an Eternal Greenbelt Survived ‘Quixotic’ Originator

In old newspaper articles, Jim Dilley is quoted as calling himself “quixotic, carried away with the cause.” His dream? To ring the city with 10,000 acres of open space.

Dilley concocted the idea of a “Laguna Greenbelt” 23 years ago, a dozen years before he died of cancer in 1980. But the man and his dream are still fresh in the minds of many Laguna Beach residents, who credit him with sowing the seeds that have blossomed into the second-largest park in Orange County--a 10,000-acre sea of wilderness alongside the city.

Barbara Stuart has vivid memories of Dilley’s pitch, how he enticed her to join the battle for open space two decades ago. Until then, her solitary passion had been ballet.

“He was a very persuasive person,” Stuart said. “I’d never heard of a greenbelt. And when I told someone I’d become interested in the greenbelt, they said, ‘Oh, you’ve taken up karate.’ ”

Today, Stuart is treasurer of Laguna Greenbelt Inc. She is also one of a number of residents still caught up by Dilley’s passion to preserve open space. These residents--and more recent converts--continue to oppose development near the seaside city, whether it be a proposed housing tract in the canyon or the planned San Joaquin Hills toll road.

Not everyone was so inspired by the former bookstore owner.

Orange County Supervisor Thomas F. Riley once said, “Jim could bring me to the boiling point faster than just about anybody.” And former Irvine Co. planner Donald C. Cameron, who used to spar with Dilley in the newspaper, called his opponent “a very amusing man, and maddening at times.”

But Laguna Beach residents, who honored Dilley as “Significant Citizen of the Decade” before he died, say he was a visionary. Were it not for his dream, said Laguna Greenbelt president Elisabeth Brown, the sprawling bastion of wilderness now surrounding Laguna Beach would not exist.