Laguna Niguel : Scaled-Down Housing Plan to Be Debated

The public can offer opinions tonight on new environmental reports for a plan to build a housing tract on a coastal ridgeline that environmentalists say should be preserved.

The city Planning Commission hearing will focus on a revised plan by Las Vegas casino owner Jack B. Binion to build 22 homes on his 22-acre parcel, which overlooks the south end of Laguna Beach.

A previous plan to build 32 homes at the site was rejected by the commission in 1992, partly because of the amount of dirt that would have had to be moved to flatten the area for construction. As a result, Binion scaled back the proposal, and a new environmental report was prepared.

Laguna Beach continues to oppose development of the property, which is said to contain southern maritime chaparral, a rare grouping of vegetation that deserves protection.

“It’s a much higher habitat value than anything in Laguna Canyon,” Laguna Beach resident Mike Beanan said.

“My opinion is it’s a very unusual combination of vegetation,” added former Laguna Beach Mayor Ann Christoph, a landscape architect familiar with the area. “I’m pretty sure it does not occur (anywhere else) in the state.”

The project’s environmental documents say the steep coastal hillsides are the only place in Orange County that this grouping of plants is known to exist.

Laguna Niguel planner Peter Carlson said Monday that the habitat is valuable but not “globally endangered,” as Beanan and others insist. Carlson said biologists are still in dispute about the habitat’s importance.

The Binion project has long stirred controversy in Laguna Niguel and Laguna Beach. During the acrimonious process of trying to get his development approved, Binion has filed two lawsuits against Laguna Niguel. Both suits have been withdrawn.

Tonight’s hearing will begin at 7 p.m. in council chambers at Laguna Niguel City Hall, 27781 La Paz Road.