LAGUNA NIGUEL : Panel OKs Proposal for Shopping Center

The Planning Commission this week approved a plan to build what would be the city’s largest shopping center after a five-hour hearing.

The main part of the Marketplace at Laguna Niguel will contain three major stores, including a Mervyn’s department store and a Vons supermarket. Smaller shops will be between the three anchor stores, and plans include spots for 10 satellite stores spread across the 44-acre parcel.

Although the developer, Shappell Industries, got the go-ahead Tuesday night for the 422,000-square-foot center at Pacific Park Drive and Alicia Parkway, commissioners voted 3 to 2 to require a future review of parking before the center can be completed.

Commissioner James Olmstead pushed for the review, which he said will prevent Shappell from crowding too many stores in a center with too little parking. The review, commissioners said, must be done before construction begins on the fifth satellite store.

Olmstead said the plans seem to show too few parking spaces for the restaurant. He said the review would not present any hardship to Shappell, but the company’s vice president, Alan Cummins, said the review could complicate an already difficult endeavor.

Homeowners from the Heather Ridge condominiums, across Pacific Park Drive in Aliso Viejo, also presented a letter to the commission opposing the project. The letter questioned traffic study results and offered a list of measures to cushion the mall’s impact on their neighborhood.