2 South County Cities Increase Hostilities Over Development Plans at 49-Acre Site : Land-use: Laguna Hills council feels left out of planning process for adjacent Mission Viejo parcel targeted for commercial use.

Forget the usual niceties of municipal neighbors. A barren patch of land along Interstate 5 has locked a pair of South County cities in a nose-to-nose conflict.

Mission Viejo wants the 49-acre site near Pacific Park Drive and Cabot Road to become a shopping plaza or auto center that could be worth millions in tax revenues. The problem is, the property is landlocked between railroad tracks and the freeway, with the sole access from Cabot Road--about 150 feet--inside the city limits of neighboring Laguna Hills.

Laguna Hills city officials say that for over a year, Mission Viejo has ignored requests for information and recently tried to bulldoze the project through official channels.

Without informing the newly incorporated city, Mission Viejo went to the Public Utilities Commission last November for approval of a bridge that would connect Cabot Road to the project site, Laguna Hills officials say.

Laguna Hills retaliated by filing an emergency protest just a day before the application was to be considered last month. The protest will be handed to a Public Utilities Commission law judge, and a pre-conference meeting will be scheduled within the next few months.

“Good neighbors don’t treat each other like this,” said Laguna Hills Councilman R. Craig Scott. “Whatever happens on that property affects Laguna Hills and Laguna Hills residents only. We just want to know what’s going on and to have the opportunity to have input on whatever is built there.”

Mission Viejo officials say they have been upfront about the project and sent notice to Laguna Hills Councilman Randal J. Bressette about the Public Utilities Commission application last November.

Mission Viejo Councilman Robert D. Breton said the real issue is “not that they’ve been precluded from the process. It’s too early in the day for that. We still have not even received any specific plans from the property owner (the Mission Viejo Co.). For all we know, they could tell us tomorrow that they sold the land to Forest Lawn.”

Laguna Hills City Atty. Lois E. Jeffrey acknowledged that Bressette received at least one letter in November--one month before Laguna Hills officially incorporated. But she said the information should have been directed to the temporary city hall offices.

The cities have agreed to talk. Next week, two council members from each side will discuss the matter, and all concerned have expressed hope that the communication gap will be bridged. But first, they must overcome bad feelings that have come to a slow boil over the past year.

“If you want to say there is a lack of trust here, there is,” said Mission Viejo Mayor Sharon Cody. “Things could get real nasty. I sure hope they don’t.”

In February, 1991, two weeks before the Laguna Hills March 5 incorporation election, residents were enraged to discover that the county and Mission Viejo had worked out a property transfer for part of the land needed to build the bridge that would connect Cabot Road to the the parcel of land.

Residents wanted the county to wait for incorporation so they could have a voice in the transaction. County officials said the project has been ongoing since 1986 and couldn’t wait another 10 months for the official incorporation date, which was celebrated last December.

Despite demonstrations on the site marked by sign-waving picketers, the land transfer was approved by the county. The city of Mission Viejo is official landowner for the few hundred feet needed to build the bridge.

After the incorporation election created the new city, the Laguna Hills council-elect asked Mission Viejo officials to keep its members informed on the bridge project’s progress.

The proposed auto center could yield as much as $1.5 million a year to Mission Viejo. Laguna Hills officials say they are worried about the impact of increased traffic and noise on affluent neighborhoods near the site.

Mission Viejo officials say Laguna Hills is determined to have the 49-acre site used for ball fields or some other passive use.

“If (Laguna Hills officials) were to be very honest, they would say that they want total control on how the property is to be used,” Cody said.

Laguna Hills council members deny that they want to have the last word on developing the property.

“We can’t dictate what someone wants to put there,” Scott said. “The only thing I do know is that Laguna Hills as a city has been totally left out” of the planning process.