South County Cities Look to the Center

In an area where the most identifiable buildings are shopping malls, something is missing in South County cities.

Developers filled the Saddleback Valley with bedroom communities and retail centers during the late 1980s and early 1990s housing boom, but the unique landmarks that give a city its sense of place--the cultural centers, civic center complexes, meeting halls--were missing.

Cognizant of the need, most of the cities that incorporated between 1987 and 1991 are now actively planning or building town centers.

“I think our communities are identified by their malls,” said Melody Carruth, a former Laguna Hills council member.

“Our citizens gather at the Claim Jumper [restaurant] and pizza places to meet and talk about things. People in Laguna Hills just want a place to connect with each other.”

In Laguna Hills, the City Council recently approve a $20-million recreation/library complex. Consultants are being interviewed to create plans to redevelop El Toro Road, where Lake Forest City Manager Robert C. Dunek hopes to find room for a city hall.

From her beauty supply shop in Mission Viejo, Brenda Rome has watched the future library--where a city hall is also being planned next door--rise from the ground in recent months.

“That was always the dream for a lot of people who live here, to see that town center come in,” Rome, a 22-year resident, said. “Now, it’s a dream that’s coming true.”

Between 1987 and 1991, five South County communities--Mission Viejo, Dana Point, Lake Forest, Laguna Niguel and Laguna Hills--voted overwhelmingly, in separate elections, for incorporation.

However, since the spate of incorporations, none of the five cities has built a city hall or library, although Mission Viejo has started work on its library. Some blame the county for allowing developers to build without setting aside land for future civic uses.

“Having acreage set aside for City Hall, recreation facilities and parks wasn’t important to the county,” Carruth said. “The supervisors responsible for planning never recognized the development of South County as a region [that would someday] form several cities.”

Mission Viejo Co. spokesperson Wendy Wetzel Harder said her company carried out a planning strategy from the 1960s that intentionally spread out amenities such as areas for shopping, cultural events and city services.

“The thought was to try to put neighborhood shopping centers and parks within a mile or two of every residence,” Wetzel Harder said. “In that, we let the town create itself.”

Open space was set aside throughout Mission Viejo for civic facilities, including the parcel where city officials currently plan to build a City Hall complex, she said.

Yet newly incorporated city governments were not handed vast stretches of land to create town centers. The new cities were already more than 90% built when they incorporated, and city officials now scramble to find open space to meet the demand for parks and youth sports fields.

As a result, each city is adapting to its unique circumstances.

Dana Point purchased the office complex where City Hall is located for $4.05 million, and interim City Manager Dayle Keller says city offices will remain there.

Although it won’t be a civic center complete with City Hall and library, Dana Point is focusing on an area about a mile east of City Hall as the future focal point of the community.

Civic leaders are working on a plan that envisions turning a hodgepodge of shops gathered around Pacific Coast Highway and Street of the Golden Lantern into a promenade, to be known as Town Center, that leads to scenic Dana Point Harbor.

One of the options being considered is reducing the width of Pacific Coast Highway and Del Prado Avenue, the other street that cuts through the Town Center area, and widening sidewalks to encourage people to get out of their cars.

Along with a cosmetic redesign of storefronts to make the area attractive, city officials hope that a full-fledged “downtown Dana Point” will emerge to attract locals and tourists.

“We wanted to set it up so people can enjoy walking” through Town Center, Keller said. “It’s designed to be the hub of town.”

The gathering point for Laguna Hills also will lack a City Hall. But for $20 million, residents will be seeing a lot of amenities at Alicia Parkway and Paseo de Valencia.

There will be several badly needed youth athletic fields. The city will also build a gymnasium that will have community meeting rooms and add a new library. Laguna Hills is currently the only Orange County city without its own library.

Although civic center complexes are further off for Laguna Niguel and Lake Forest, both cities are working on development plans that could include a town center.

Lake Forest has just begun looking into redeveloping a major portion of busy El Toro Road near Interstate 5, and city officials hope room can be found for public buildings on the outskirts of the project.

Laguna Niguel must wait for the county to decide whether to expand or relocate the Municipal Court complex off Alicia and Crown Valley parkways. With a public library already on the grounds, city officials say the site has good potential for a civic complex.

A library is also the first step for Mission Viejo’s civic center complex. Expected to be completed by the end of the year, the library will cost about $6.5 million and cover 27,500 square feet--triple the size of the current library.

Next door, land set aside for a future City Hall lies empty. Council members have started talking about making preliminary plans for the building, although at least one council member, Mayor William S. Craycraft, doesn’t want the city to hurry into building a City Hall.

“We will have a City Hall there,” Craycraft said. “I personally would like to wait until the library is built and then we see where we are financially.”

The library will be located close to the geographic center of town--Marguerite Parkway and La Paz Road--where some of the first buildings in Mission Viejo were built.

“That corner has been at the heart of the community for a long time,” council member Sherri M. Butterfield said. “I think this is all part of the natural maturing of our community.”

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Getting Centered

Mission Viejo and Laguna Hills will spend more than $26 million to give their cities a physical and spiritual “center”:

1. Mission Viejo’s estimated $6.5-million library will be 27,500 square feet, including meeting rooms. A City Hall is also planned for the site.

2. Laguna Hills has approved a $20-million recreation complex to house a gymnasium, library, meeting rooms, athletic fields and park.

Source: Individual cities ; Researched by FRANK MESSINA / For The Times