Council Action Due on Casino Owner’s Hilltop Homes Plan

In one corner is Jack Binion, a Las Vegas casino owner who has put several hundred thousand dollars and five years into seeing that his 22-unit hilltop development is approved.

In the other corner is the South Laguna Civic Assn., a well-financed, environmentally conscious group of homeowners who live just below the planned project of expensive, ocean-view homes.

After slugging it out in dozens of public hearings over the years, the two sides will likely meet for the last time Tuesday night before the Laguna Niguel City Council.

Few in the city will be sorry to see this bitterly contested project leave the public stage.

“I just want this to be over with,” Councilwoman Janet Godfrey said before one particularly contentious meeting in July. “I get knots in my stomach just talking about it.”

That’s because after all the tumultuous years, after threats of lawsuits, accusations of late-night hang-up calls to council members and other alleged dirty tricks, nobody knows how this battle will turn out.

Council members have been split evenly, 2 to 2, on the question of whether the project near Crown Valley Parkway and Pacific Coast Highway will cause rain runoff to cascade down the bluffs and flood the back yards of South Laguna residents.

As if the hearing needed more dramatic tension, the potential tie-breaker, Councilwoman Patricia C. Bates, is awaiting word today from the state’s Fair Political Practices Commission regarding her eligibility to vote on the Binion project.

The FPPC is to decide whether the location of Bates’ residence is close enough to the project site to constitute a conflict of interest. There is no clue how Bates will vote if the ruling permits her to: She has steadfastly declined to tell anyone how she feels about the planned homes.

“The developer has accused me of being on the side of the people, the [the South Laguna homeowners] have said I support the developer,” Bates said. “I guess I’ve been one of those enigmas whom everyone is trying to figure out.”

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The main issue is whether building posh homes on the bluffs will create a flood hazard for South Laguna.

Binion consultants and city planning officials say the developer has done enough to mitigate runoff. The area already has a substantial drainage problem and the project won’t do anything to make things worse, according to Binion planning consultant Philip Bettencourt.

“There isn’t any doubt that on technical merit, this project meets all published city and county standards,” Bettencourt said. “The law imposes obligations on downstream property owners to maintain their property. We have no control over what happens downstream.”

But members of the homeowners’ group say the project will make things worse.

“As soon as the rain hits the dirt, year after year, all that dirt is going to come down on us,” said the association vice president, Mike Beanan, who described the drainage measures proposed by the developer as a “drop in the bucket.”

As much as a contest of consultants hired by both sides, the Binion project has been a conflict of philosophy.

And much of the tension in the development process has been between Mayor Mark Goodman and the association.

Strongly pro-business, Goodman has railed at council meetings at how project opponents are trying to take away Binion’s right to develop his land.

“My greatest concern is their anti-business sentiment,” Goodman said. “I object to the thought that it’s OK to beat the hell out of a guy who wants to build houses.”

At a July meeting, Goodman lambasted project opponents, calling them “Bolsheviks” and accusing them of harassing his family by ringing his phone late at night, then hanging up without speaking.

“My anger showed at that meeting,” he said. “They call us dirty politicians and yet they use all kinds of dirty tactics.”

Calling Goodman’s accusations “grandstanding,” Beanan said the mayor is a development supporter who has “been the one who has attacked us from the dais.”

“It’s a philosophical difference between them and us,” Beanan said. Developers “plow everything under and make it ugly and then move on and do it again somewhere else.

“People live their lives and die in South Laguna,” he said. “We won’t be pushed around by development interests.”

That may mean going to court if the project is backed by the council Tuesday.

“It might be the closing of one chapter and the opening of another,” Beanan said. “Whatever it takes to protect our property, that’s what we’ll do.”