Endangered Mouse Won’t Endanger Resort : Development: The Dana Point Headlands project can accommodate the federally protected species, planners say.

The placement of the Pacific pocket mouse on the federal endangered species list will have no major effect on a proposed $500-million resort at the Dana Point Headlands, a development spokesman said Friday.

“We fully anticipated the listing during the planning process to accommodate the permanent listing of the pocket mouse,” said Jeffrey Adler, a spokesman for the two property owners, S. H. Sherman Co. of Newport Beach and the Pasadena-based Chandis Securities Co.

About three dozen pocket mice, believed to be the last members of the species worldwide, have been detected on 3.75 acres on the headlands, a peninsula just north of Dana Point Harbor.

On Sept. 26, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service put the mice on the endangered list. The rodents already had been placed there on an emergency basis last spring for a 240-day period that ended Sept. 28.

The developers’ plans include three alternatives for the pocket mice, Adler said: They can be relocated on or off the site, or the project area can be moved to accommodate their current habitat.

With the mouse’s placement on the endangered list, developers will not be allowed to proceed without first convincing the service that construction would not further endanger the mouse.

“Being on the federal endangered species list means that the mouse is now protected,” said Loren Hays, a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service spokesman. “You cannot harm or harass them unless you have a prescribed permit. And you get a permit by applying through the Fish and Wildlife Service.”

No permit application has been submitted, Hays said.

Plans call for a 400-room luxury hotel and 370 homes with sweeping ocean vistas on 121 acres.

Recently, property owners and the Dana Point Headlands Conservancy have met privately to discuss saving part of the headlands.

Conservancy officials have told owners they would like to buy about nine acres of the most prominent, environmentally sensitive land at the tip of the peninsula, including the habitat of the endangered mice. In addition, the conservancy would want a five-year option to buy an additional 12 acres, which is now the proposed location of the hotel.

Approved in April by the City Council, the Headlands project has been the target of protests by residents who contend the development is too extensive and will destroy one of the county’s last undeveloped coastal properties.

The approved plan is the subject of two heated citywide November ballot measures that could force the council to rescind its approval.

Now that the mouse is listed as endangered, money may be available through the federal Land and Water Acquisition Fund to preserve the headlands, said Jacqueline Cain, a conservancy director.

“We got into this late in the game. The land is for sale and we believe that this is our last chance to come up with federal, state or county bonds to purchase the point for preservation,” she said.

Chandis Securities, which oversees the financial holdings of the Chandler family, is a major stockholder in Times Mirror Co., publisher of the Los Angeles Times.