Laguna Niguel : Hon Hill Project Faces New Delay

After three hours of testimony from residents and geology experts, the City Council decided that a few more questions need to be answered before the controversial Hon Hill project can go forward.

At a special meeting Monday, council members were expected to vote on a zoning change for the Hon project and an appeal by residents of Planning Commission approval of the project. Instead, the council voted to continue the public hearing to next month.

The Planning Commission on Jan. 28 approved the Hon plan, which proposes building a 20,000-square-foot house, a 5,000-square-foot guest house, two tennis courts and a pair of pools on the 60-acre hillside parcel, which is bordered on the south by Pacific Island Drive and the east by Crown Valley Parkway.

Developer Barry Hon has made several attempts at building on the hill. Hon representative Gerald Buck told council members that because of clashes with residents over those earlier plans, the latest project has received undue criticism.

“I don’t think there’s anything we can do with the property--other than give it to the city--that would satisfy everybody in the area,” Buck said.

Despite reassuring presentations by the city staff and consultants, the council said concerns raised by residents about landslide potential, water runoff, a planned 700-foot-long retaining wall and the grading of the hillside still need to be addressed.

One consultant noted there have been no landslide problems on the hill in the past 20 years, prompting Councilwoman Janet Godfrey to remark: “That does not set my mind at ease. If a geologist says things like that, I’m worried.”

Much of the argument against the Hon project centers around the stability of the hillside. Both critics of the project and Hon representatives agree that a landslide area is present on the north side of the property, which is not included in the construction plans. But the soundness of the rest of the parcel is disputed.

Allen M. Yourman, a geotechnical consultant, called the property “an island of tranquillity in a sea of distress” because the hill is part of the San Onofre Breccia, a geological formation that is particularly sturdy when compared to other landslide-conducive hillsides in South County. He said the parcel is sound.

But a round of applause from the standing-room-only crowd greeted resident Maurice Ancharoff when he dismissed city findings as “a glaring example of half-truths, selective citations, outright misinformation, ignored contradictions and bureaucratic babble.”