LAGUNA NIGUEL : Ruling Bars Gates Limiting Street Access

A Superior Court judge has ruled that a group of Laguna Niguel residents may not put gates and guards at entrances to their community, which has a public park within its boundaries.

The 250-member El Niguel Heights Homeowners Assn. had previously won permission from Laguna Niguel officials to gate the 18-year-old tract as long as public access to the two-acre Seminole Park was ensured.

A key element of the city plan was to turn over ownership of the streets inside the tract to the association, which would then be responsible for their maintenance.

But Judge Michael Brenner ruled last week that the city has no authority to vacate the public’s rights to use those streets, said Andrew R. Henderson, an attorney for the Park Access Restoration Committee, another local residents’ group that filed suit against the El Niguel Heights homeowners.

“Because the streets could not be vacated, they could not be gated,” Henderson said.

Paul Christiansen, a former city councilman and co-founder of PARC, applauded the judge’s decision. Putting gates with uniformed guards around a public park, he said, would be “against the American way.”

“The judge was resolute that the city has absolutely no authority in law to close public streets or effectively gate a public park,” he said.

Attorney Allen Wilion, who represented the association, said he will appeal because he believes the judge misinterpreted the state law regarding public streets.