Chasm Over Bridge Leading to Courtroom : Development: Laguna Hills faces suit for refusing to allow Mission Viejo and Mission Viejo Co. access to lone road to project site.

The bad blood between two South County cities and a developer over access to a prime piece of real estate continued this week with both sides refusing to back down.

Charging that Laguna Hills is “wrongfully opposing and interfering” with development of a 49-acre site along Interstate 5 in Mission Viejo that could become an auto mall, Mission Viejo Co. officials said Thursday that they intend to file a lawsuit against the city in Orange County Superior Court.

Laguna Hills wants a say in the project because it will have an effect on city roads and is using control of the land’s single access point as leverage.

The property is locked between railroad tracks and the freeway and the only access to it is from Cabot Road, which is about 150 feet inside Laguna Hills’ city limits.

In an April 15 letter, the Mission Viejo Co. gave Laguna Hills an April 22 deadline to either withdraw its protest filed with the Public Utilities Commission or be hit with a lawsuit.

“We intend to follow through with the intent of the letter,” said Mission Viejo Co. spokeswoman Wendy Wetzel.

The Laguna Hills City Council voted 4-0 in a closed session Tuesday to maintain its opposition to a bridge the developer wants to build to connect its land with Cabot Road in Laguna Hills.

“We are standing firm,” said Laguna Hills Mayor Melody Carruth. “Our community members have never been intimidated by highhanded threats. They’re trying to intimidate us and it’s apparent that they believe that we will be intimidated.”

The developer maintains that Laguna Hills’ protest of the bridge is without merit and has been “undertaken in bad faith, solely to hinder and delay the development.”

But Laguna Hills officials say they are concerned that the bridge is being planned without proper traffic and environmental impact studies.

“We have never been involved in any of the discussions or asked for any of our opinions related to the construction of the bridge by the Mission Viejo Co.” or the city of Mission Viejo, said City Manager Bruce Channing. “It’s a significant arterial in our community and these are things we feel we are entitled to ask for. They apparently don’t agree.”

Laguna Hills officials maintain that Mission Viejo went to the PUC last November for approval of the bridge without informing them.

Mission Viejo officials maintain that they have been candid about the project and informed their neighbor about their intentions last November, one month before Laguna Hills officially became a city.

Laguna Hills retaliated by filing the emergency protest just a day before the application was to be considered in February.