DANA POINT : Plan Unit Approves Headlands Project

A controversial $500-million hotel and residential project proposed for the 121-acre Headlands area moved ahead this week when the Planning Commission approved a development agreement.

The commission voted 4 to 1 Wednesday for the 64-page agreement, a legal contract that locks in a development plan for at least 10 years. Before it is binding, however, the plan and the development agreement must be approved by the City Council.

Among the agreement’s key elements are requirements that the developer dedicate 66 acres for parks and open space, spend $2.8 million on improvements for parks, and construct a public trail system on the property within 180 days of obtaining the first grading permit.

Although not yet approved, the plan calls for a 400-room hotel, two commercial centers and a maximum of 370 homes on the peninsula above Dana Point Harbor. The council is scheduled to vote on the plan April 5 and on the development agreement sometime after that.

Planning Commission Chairman Jim Hyde said the agreement protects the city and reflects the many changes his five-member panel had built into the plan during nearly nine months of review last year.

“My feeling is that it is a good agreement,” said Hyde, noting that the commission had gone through the agreement page by page during a meeting lasting several hours. “We spent a lot of time on the plan and didn’t leave many loose ends . . . and we didn’t really make many comments on the agreement.”

The commission did express concern over the order in which the development construction would take place. Although the agreement leaves that order--called phasing--up to the developer, the commission suggested that the commercial centers come early in the construction, not last as now proposed.

“We asked the council to somehow stipulate that the last phase not be the commercial phase . . . which provides income to the city,” Hyde said.

Commissioner Robert Montgomery also called the agreement a good one, pointing out that it ties the dedication of most of the parkland and open space to the residential construction.

“During the residential phases most of the important things happen,” Montgomery said. “That’s when we get most of what we want as a city.”

Commissioner Robert F. Nichols Jr. cast the dissenting vote because he wanted more protections for the city written into the agreement.

“This is a very complex legal document,” said Nichols, an attorney. “I don’t think the city is as protected in this agreement as it could be.”

The Headlands property is owned by the M.H. Sherman Co. and Chandis Securities Co. Chandis manages the holdings of the Chandler family, major stockholders in Times Mirror Co., which publishes The Times.