DANA POINT : Land Exchange Nets Parcel for a Park

It was a highly complicated and unusual exchange: a sliver of public parkland in the Dana Bluffs area for less than half of an acre of inland private property.

But the upshot is this: A Florida businessman wanted a pool for his Dana Point vacation home at almost any price, and for a cool $750,000, he will get it.

When the Dana Point Planning Commission recently approved Alan Squitieri’s acquisition of one-tenth of an acre of Heritage Park, it gave the 70-year-old developer the extra room he needs to install a pool, complete with landscaping and changing room.

After the commission meeting, Squitieri explained why he was willing to pay $750,000 for a pool.

“I’ve got gout,” he said, pointing to his legs. “And you’ve got wonderful weather in Dana Point. It’s much more enjoyable with a pool.”

Joe Lovullo, a Lantern Bay Realty agent representing Squitieri, said his client enjoys a rich lifestyle.

“His house in Gainesville (Fla.) is amazing,” Lovullo said. “He has murals painted on his ceilings throughout the house. Everything is beautiful. Mr. Squitieri is very artistic and a perfectionist.”

Last year, Squitieri asked the Capistrano Bay Park and Recreation Department, which owns Heritage Park, if he could purchase the sliver of land.

He was turned down by the park district, which told him it was against policy to sell public land. Squitieri came back with an offer to buy another plot of land somewhere else in Dana Point and exchange it for the space he needed.

The Capistrano park district agreed in January to trade the Heritage Park property for about one-third of an acre near Street of the Violet Lantern and La Cresta Drive.

The agency plans to convert the property into a park in the residential Lantern district in Dana Point.

The transaction received some criticism from a few of Squitieri’s neighbors and Planning Commissioner Robert Nichols Jr., who felt that selling or trading public land sets a bad precedent.

But other commissioners and Capistrano Bay Park trustees were convinced by appraisals of both properties that showed the Street of the Violet Lantern land was worth about $100,000 more than the Heritage Park parcel.

Squitieri will pay about $400,000 for the future parkland, about $100,000 in consultants’ fees and about $250,000 to build his pool, said a Capistrano park trustee.