No Lagoon, No Woods--No Problem?

Call it Laguna confusion.

Leisure World residents voted Tuesday to make themselves Orange County’s newest city but selected a name that has some people scratching their heads: Laguna Woods.

Nevermind that Leisure World is seven miles from the nearest beach and is not known for its lagoons. And forget that the closest thing to rustic woods in the retirement community is a few old sycamores.

The community becomes the fourth incorporated “Laguna” city in Orange County. It joins Laguna Beach, the artsy oceanside hamlet formed in 1927, and two suburban newcomers: Laguna Niguel and Laguna Hills. Several nearby neighborhoods also bear the name including Laguna Canyon and South Laguna.

Clearly, the name evokes something powerful--though people aren’t sure exactly what it is.

“Everyone wants to be affiliated with Laguna Beach,” said public affairs consultant George Urch. “It’s a beautiful area that’s one of the jewels of Orange County. People want that sort of feeling to rub off.”

Mark Petracca, professor of political science at UC Irvine, said Leisure World’s name selection reflects a common yearning among suburban residents to create idyllic communities--even if they can do it in name only.

“They’re doing what most of Orange County does when it names things,” he said. “They name them for things that don’t exist, but we’d like them to.”

And Leisure World isn’t alone in its desire to change its name. Residents just up the freeway decided to incorporate under the name Lake Forest in 1991, dropping the area’s historic identity: El Toro.

But Kime Goodrum, a mortgage broker with Monarch Lending Group of Laguna Hills, warns that choosing a distinctive name like Laguna doesn’t necessarily translate into something more tangible, such as increased property values.

“I used to live in El Toro, and a lot of Realtors thought when they changed the name to Lake Forest, it would remove the military base stigma and property values would go up,” he said. “It didn’t happen.”

Whatever the reason, “Laguna” is hot. The South County phone directory has more than 200 business listings that use the name--from Laguna Asphalt and Paving to Laguna Yamaha Music Center--far more than any other community in the area.

Some people worry that the new city will cause confusion. County officials already prevailed on Leisure World to back away from its first choice for a name, Laguna Heights, because it could be mistaken with similarly named subdivisions and a shopping center in Laguna Niguel.

The plethora of Lagunas has already resulted in misplaced calls to the Laguna Beach Chamber of Commerce, and executive director Howard Levin wonders whether Laguna Woods is really the right name for Leisure World.

“There really is only one Laguna,” Levin said.

Laguna Beach resident Muriel Davis agreed: “I think of Laguna as this village with a great beach. Now, everything over the hills and to Interstate 5 has the same name.”

Leisure World held a contest to select a name for the city, and the three top choices were Laguna Verde, Laguna Heights and Laguna Woods. At Tuesday’s election, voters selected Laguna Woods as the official name by a wide margin.

Urch said the vote could stem from a number of factors: Both it and Leisure World start with the same letters, and the new city is between Laguna Hills and Lake Forest.

“Laguna Woods brings back memories of yesterday, and many of these folks probably can remember when there were woods in Orange County,” he added.