DANA POINT : Workshops to Focus on General Plan

The first of a series of workshops focusing on the city’s General Plan, a source of local controversy since it was adopted in 1991, will be held Saturday at City Hall.

Councilman William L. Ossenmacher suggested the workshops to “get some of the differences resolved that members of the community have with the plan. This might be a way to get things worked out.”

The controversy erupted immediately after the plan was approved unanimously by the City Council in July, 1991. A group of angry residents circulated a petition demanding a citywide referendum on the plan, but so far city officials have blocked the vote through the courts.

Critics of the General Plan, which provides a conceptual blueprint for how the city will be developed, argue that it promotes growth and will ultimately change the city from a small beach town to a tourist-oriented destination resort. Proponents of the plan say it is a document mandated by state law that can be changed or amended four times a year.

“Everybody seems to think the General Plan is cast in concrete,” said Lynn Muir, a Dana Point architect and resident for more than 40 years. “To me, it’s like a business plan--it’s adaptable. A lot of people don’t understand that.”

Perhaps the most controversial part of the General Plan centers on the future of the Headlands, the city’s major promontory overlooking Dana Point Harbor. The General Plan would allow a resort hotel, commercial development and a major residential tract on the approximately 125-acre site.

The Headlands has been the focus of a vocal group of residents who want to stop or minimize development on the privately owned property. They have also prompted the city to study buying either a portion or the entire property.

Because of the controversy, a March 17 workshop will be reserved exclusively for Headlands issues.

Jim Hayton, an outspoken critic of the General Plan who won a seat on a local water board, said he will try to use the workshop process to push for an alternative plan for the Headlands. He added that water is also an issue in the General Plan, which he says does not account for the availability of water, which will be more expensive in the near future.

“Our water board is taking a look at the element of the plan that concerns water issues,” Hayton said. “We want to make sure, with the price of water becoming astronomical, the residents of the city will not have to subsidize new development projects with large demands for water. Any new development should be addressed on a case-by-case basis.”

The first of the workshops, which will be conducted by the city Planning Commission, will start at 10 a.m. Saturday. It will include a discussion of what a general plan does, how it is used and how it is amended.

Future workshops will be held at 6 p.m. on March 3, 17 and 31 and April 21.