LAGUNA BEACH : Council to Consider Plan for Wild Lands

A controversial plan that would limit access to about 2,500 acres of publicly owned land in order to protect sensitive wildlife habitats will be considered tonight by the City Council.

Environmentalists who favor the restriction have called for a wildlife study--that could take several years--to determine the impact of public access.

“We really don’t know where the sensitive resources are at this point,” said Elisabeth Brown, a member of the Coastal Greenbelt Authority formed to manage the blanket of wilderness, which includes the Laguna Laurel property, Sycamore Hills, Laguna Heights and part of the Irvine Coast.

“We’re going to be very conservative because it’s much worse to open an area and then to try to close it later than to not open it at all.”

Currently, hikers and bicyclists are allowed only on the Laguna Heights property near the Top of the World neighborhood. With the exception of one day a month during selected times of the year when Sycamore Hills is open to hikers, the remainder of the land is closed to the public.

Some residents are balking at the strict regulations contained in the temporary management plan, which would close some sections now used for mountain biking, horseback riding, picnicking and hiking.

Mountain bikers, in particular, have been “extremely upset” at the prospect of being shut out of the land, said Betty Swenson, chairwoman of the city’s Open Space Commission, which held a public hearing on the subject last month.

Dog owners, who like their pets to romp on the land, are also upset, Commissioner David Kossack said. Kossack, however, believes that wildlife protection must take precedence in park planning.

“The amount of habitat in Orange County . . . is so small,” he said, “you’ve really got to protect it.”

Eventually, Brown said, different sections of the land may be open for different uses so that, for example, bird watchers will not be startled by speeding bicyclists. Some sections of the land may never be open to mountain bikers, she said, and some parts may not be open at all.

“The vision was to keep it as a great wilderness experience,” she said. “The kind of human uses that are consistent with that will go in, and the others won’t.”

The temporary management plan was proposed by the county and reviewed by the city’s Open Space Commission, which is making its recommendations to the City Council tonight. The council will relay its comments to the Coastal Greenbelt Authority, which will make a decision about the plan on March 11.