LAGUNA BEACH : Council Rejects Annexation Bid

A bid by Laguna Audubon residents, who want their community to become a part of Laguna Beach, has been rejected by the City Council.

The council, which normally pursues annexations only to halt or control development, decided this week that there was no benefit to the city to act on the plan, City Clerk Verna Rollinger said.

Mayor Lida Lenney said Friday that the council rejected the annexation bid because extending the boundaries of the city would detract from its ambience.

“Laguna is different because it has a small village atmosphere and character,” she said. “In fact, we are probably about as big as we’re ever going to be as long as we consider ourselves a village.”

Sherri Honer, a Laguna Audubon resident who helped lead the annexation drive, said she is disappointed but not surprised by the council’s decision. Honer said Laguna Beach has always had “a negative feeling” about Laguna Audubon, a 289-home development near the junction of El Toro and Laguna Canyon roads.

“They just never wanted it here in the first place,” she said of the development. “Basically, they don’t want anything built.”

Many of the Laguna Audubon residents who presented their proposal to the council Tuesday night said they thought that when they bought their homes that they were in Laguna Beach but learned later that they were not.

Signs and sales brochures had identified this first phase of the Laguna Audubon development, which is inland from Aliso Creek Road, as being in Laguna Beach.

In 1989, some residents sued the developer, the Kathryn G. Thompson Development Co., and its advertising agency, claiming they had been misled into believing their homes were in Laguna Beach. In December, 1990, the developer settled with the homeowners.

Laguna Audubon residents feel connected to the city, in part because their children attend school there, Honer said. Being a part of Laguna Beach is “a very sensitive issue” to many of them, she said.

The residents have not yet decided what action, if any, they should take next, she said. They could still petition the Local Agency Formation Commission, the county agency that approves annexations, to initiate an annexation.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s the action they want to take,” Honer said.