$800-Million Plan Submitted for Headlands at Dana Point : Development: The resort proposal includes a 400-room luxury hotel and 521 homes. Opposition from environmentalists is considered likely.

The owners of the 121-acre promontory known as the Headlands, one of the county’s last major undeveloped oceanfront parcels, submitted their plan for an $800-million resort above Dana Point Harbor on Wednesday.

The proposal includes a 400-room luxury hotel and a maximum of 521 homes.

As envisioned, a variety of residential neighborhoods will take up the largest portion of the bluff-top property, ranging from custom-built homes to less expensive condominiums and townhomes. Walking and bicycle trails with viewpoints and parks will link the neighborhoods to a 12.8-acre commercial area including the hotel, shops and restaurants at the southern end of the property and Dana Strand beach at the northern end.

The proposal is the first official document presented to the city by the landowners, the Newport Beach-based M.H. Sherman Co. and Chandis Securities Co. Chandis Securities, a firm that oversees the financial holdings of the Chandler family, is a principal stockholder of Times Mirror Co., which publishes the Los Angeles Times.

A report on the project’s potential environmental impact also was submitted to the city Wednesday. Both documents will be presented to the City Council and the Planning Commission at a public meeting at City Hall on Tuesday. A special public meeting on the issue will be held May 20.

“This represents the landowners’ vision of what they would like to see on the Headlands,” said Edward M. Knight, the city’s director of community development. “Now it’s incumbent on the city to look at it, twist it or turn it and make it the city’s plan. Whether it changes a little or not remains to be seen.”

The plan is the result of two years of meetings between the developers and the city staff. The landowners’ first Headlands proposal in 1991 was a scaled-back version of a development approved by the county in 1981 that called for two hotels and more than 800 homes.

While this latest proposal is substantially reduced from the early 1980s, it is still certain to stir renewed controversy in the city, where a coalition of surfers and environmental groups have made “Save the Headlands” a rallying cry of anti-development sentiment.

The landowners and their consultants acknowledge that a large portion of the property contains sensitive wildlife habitat. A biological assessment of the property, which is included in the EIR on file with the city, shows 54.6 acres of coastal sage scrub, the habitat of the California gnatcatcher. The gnatcatcher recently was declared a threatened species entitled to special federal protection.

Sixty-three percent of that coastal sage scrub will be left undisturbed under the current plan, said Cherie Phelps, vice president of PBR, the leading consultant for the property.

“For the areas we do impact, we will file for a permit with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife (Service), which will determine what mitigation measures are appropriate,” Phelps said.

The centerpiece of the project will be the resort hotel, which will include a main building plus individual bungalows that will sprawl down the hillside overlooking the harbor.

The plan also calls for a bluff-top park at the highest point of the property, 287 feet above sea level.

The plan must be approved by the city and the California Coastal Commission. Construction is at least 18 to 24 months away, said William Phillips, president of PBR.