LAGUNA BEACH : Annexation Gets County Panel’s OK

In a move that should eventually fatten Laguna Beach tax coffers by about $150,000 annually, a county commission this week approved the city’s annexation of an oceanfront development site known as Smithcliffs.

The County Board of Supervisors is expected to give final approval to the annexation on Tuesday.

The Local Agency Formation Commission’s 4-0 vote Wednesday brings Laguna Beach within a step of resolving a dispute that has cost the city more than $100,000 in legal fees.

The question of who would annex the property, just south of Emerald Bay at the north end of the city, had ensnared the city, the developer and a local water district in a tangle of lawsuits.

The city controls the only sewer lines to the property and had at one time hoped to influence development at the site by annexing the land.

The developer, however, rejected the city’s overtures and allowed the Irvine Ranch Water District to annex the land, hoping the district would provide sewer service for the 26 homes to be built there.

But the city refused to allow the district access to its sewer lines, and legal attempts over the last three years to force the issue failed.

An agreement last year paved the way for Wednesday’s hearing. The commission’s vote will allow the land to be separated from the water district and annexed to Laguna Beach, City Manager Kenneth C. Frank said.

While a development plan has already been approved by the county, Frank said residents across the street from the project will have some say regarding the height of two-story homes built at Smithcliffs.

Representatives of both the city and the developer said they are relieved that the battle is nearly over. “I think everybody is surely happy to just put all of that behind them,” said Mark Paolucci, a spokesman for the developer.

Smithcliffs lots priced at $590,000 to $5 million will go on the market this month, Paolucci said.