LAGUNA NIGUEL : Origin of Rock Bowls in Dispute

High atop a scenic ridge, in what might someday be the back yard of an exclusive, ocean-view estate, lies what appears to be a collection of small bowls carved into a sandstone rock formation.

For Councilman Paul M. Christiansen, the recent discovery of what he believes are American Indian “gossip rocks”--stones used by women thousands of years ago to grind acorns--could be a find of “major historical and archeological significance.

“There’s no denying the existence of these ‘gossip rocks,’ ” Christiansen said. “I could say, tongue in cheek, it certainly isn’t a rumor.”

But attorney William C. Holzwarth, a spokesman for landowner Jack Binion, who with a partner wants to build 32 estates on the 22-acre ridgeline site, said the idea that the sandstone formation contains gossip rocks is “ludicrous.” Instead, Holzwarth said, the indentations could be a vestige of sea creatures that inhabited the area when the ancient marine plateau was covered by water millions of years ago.

Christiansen said gossip rocks, which are found throughout Southern California, derive their name from the practice of American Indian women talking and grinding acorns while their children played around them.

In a July 28 letter to city planners in which he asks for further investigation of the site, Christiansen said he has “found no other such archeological instance more fascinating or significant in our Laguna Niguel.”

County park ranger and paleontologist Steven W. Conkling, who discovered the site last year when he was preparing informational signs for neighboring Badlands Park, said he agrees that the indentations were man-made, especially since other exposed sandstone in the area does not bear the same marks. “In my mind we have eliminated natural causes,” he said.

The debate is expected to continue tonight during a workshop on the city General Plan, which includes development guidelines for the controversial Binion tract, one of only two ridgelines with potential for development left in the city.

Community Development Director Robert Lenard said a city archeologist will investigate the site and incorporate the findings into an ongoing environmental study of the property.

Officials say they are unsure about what effect such an archeological find, if confirmed, would have on the proposed development of the site.

The Binion tract is off Isle Vista next to the gated Monarch Point neighborhood, where homes range from $275,000 to $2 million, and the county’s new Badlands Park, an eight-acre, 780-foot-high sandstone ridge overlooking South Laguna.

In January, an Orange County Superior Court judge declared invalid the Ridgeline Protection and Preservation Ordinance Initiative, which was endorsed by more than 4,000 city residents about two years earlier.

The ordinance would have banned development within 300 feet of city ridgelines and would have effectively halted development on the Binion property and a 60-acre site between Crown Valley Parkway and Pacific Island Drive known as the Hon property.