DANA POINT : City to Re-Examine Uses of the Headlands

The City Council will re-examine what to do with the landmark 121-acre Dana Point Headlands since city voters rejected a $500-million development plan on the Nov. 8 ballot.

The council unanimously agreed Tuesday night to begin a new series of public hearings that could result in changing the city General Plan’s land-use designation for the Headlands.

“I think it was clear that the community was not satisfied with the plan for the property,” Councilman William L. Ossenmacher said. “I think it really needs to go through a process where people can explore various options--a committed workshop process where everybody gets a chance to present some ideas. It would be a good healing process for the city.”

The current General Plan allows the landowners to build a hotel, commercial centers and more than 500 homes on the property.

The council earlier this year approved a plan allowing a hotel and 370 homes on the property, but voters defeated that plan at the polls after a bitter campaign.

Mayor Judy Curreri said her primary goal is to end the controversy over the Headlands.

“I hope Councilman Ossenmacher is correct and this will be a healing process,” Curreri said. Since the 1940s the Headlands has been owned by the M.H. Sherman Co. and Chandis Securities Co. Chandis Securities, a firm that oversees the financial holdings of the Chandler family, is a major stockholder in Times Mirror Co., publisher of the Los Angeles Times.

Dan T. Daniels, president of the M.H. Sherman Co., said Wednesday that the council’s decision to review the land use for the Headlands is “inappropriate” because the General Plan is only 2 years old and was written at great expense to the city.