LAGUNA NIGUEL : Hon Hill Project Wins Council OK

The City Council this week narrowly approved the Hon Hill project despite a last-ditch appeal by residents. The move ends a lengthy battle to halt construction of a mansion atop one of the city’s few remaining undeveloped hills.

At a special meeting Monday night, council members voted 3 to 2 to allow developer Barry Hon to proceed with his project. Plans call for a 20,000-square-foot house, a 5,000-square-foot guest house, two tennis courts and a pair of swimming pools on the 60-acre parcel. The property is bordered by Pacific Island Drive and Crown Valley Parkway.

Councilwoman Patricia C. Bates and Mayor Thomas W. Wilson cast the dissenting votes. The appeal by residents was intended to overturn the Planning Commission approval given the project in January.

Neighbors again voiced concerns about the stability of the hillside, which has experienced several landslides. To back up their claim that the Hon property is unstable, they presented the council with a report by geologist Dennis L. Hannan that cited “factors which impact the public safety of the (nearby) citizenry.”

The findings by Hannan, president of Coto de Caza-based Hannan Geotechnical, mention a high potential for slope failure near the location of the planned guest house and are reason enough not to approve the project, residents said.

But Councilman Mark Goodman said the concerns listed in Hannan’s report would be addressed when a permit for grading the hillside is requested. The need to collect further field information and determine the ground stability in greater detail, which was raised in Hannan’s report, will be addressed as the project moves along, he said.

John Earnest, chief geologist for the county, said he would almost certainly require more field investigation when the project comes to him for permission to grade the hill. All developments that require land grading need a permit from Earnest’s office. He said that if future studies show the property is unstable, he has the authority to halt the project.

“If they get out there and start grading and run into something that can’t be mitigated . . . then Mr. Hon will be out a lot of money,” Earnest said.

That assurance was not enough for council members Bates and Wilson, who said the Hannan report raised significant issues that should be addressed before the project proceeds.

Hon representative Gerald Buck dismissed the Hannan report as another effort by neighbors to stall a project that has been under review for years.

“The facts have all been presented,” Buck said. “Six highly qualified experts have examined the site, and they all came to the same conclusion: The site is stable.”

Scores of studies have been made on the property, including three in-depth environmental impact reports, Buck said. “This must be the most examined property for this type of use in Southern California,” he said.

That examination began in 1986 when Hon proposed building 116 condominiums atop the hill and a 39,000-square-foot commercial center along the hillside. That plan, which received county approval but was never executed, would have required removing 1.2 million cubic yards of earth.

Public outcry against that plan led in part to project revisions, Buck said. The design was reduced in 1989 to include 13 homes and a 16,000-square-foot office building, which also raised the ire of nearby homeowners. The latest plan was introduced in 1991.