A City Comes of Age

OK, so it wasn’t exactly the Rose Parade: Members of the Laguna Niguel Girls Softball League skipped down Crown Valley Parkway on Saturday to mark the city’s 10th anniversary, waving shyly to the crowd.

But it was a magnificent sight for Assemblywoman Pat Bates (R-Laguna Niguel), proof that the bitter battle she helped wage for cityhood a decade ago was worthwhile.

“It seemed so bleak at one time,” Bates said, recalling a period during the late 1980s when it seemed that her beloved community might be divvied up by neighboring South County cities.

Beyond a desire to control development and exercise local control, Bates said, it was a deep fear that long-cherished community groups--like Girl Scouts or the softball league--might no longer bear the Laguna Niguel name that really motivated cityhood advocates.

“We would have become a little bit of Mission Viejo, a little bit of Dana Point, a little bit of San Juan Capistrano,” she said.

Now, the days of trepidation are a distant memory for most in the picturesque planned community of 56,000, set amid rolling hills and dotted with parks.

Saturday’s half-mile parade, a kickoff to a year’s worth of events commemorating the city’s transition into cityhood in December 1989, celebrated a victory and afforded many a chance to reflect with pride on their city.

During the mid-1980s, several South County communities began mulling incorporation after the county Board of Supervisors voted to cut funds for unincorporated areas.

Laguna Niguel became the first in 1986 to petition for a cityhood vote, but its request languished for three years, mired amid a bitter disagreement between the community and Dana Point over a 1 1/2-mile strip of coastline known as Monarch Beach.

Although the unincorporated neighborhood was originally mapped by planners as part of Laguna Niguel, Dana Point, also pursuing cityhood at the time, claimed Monarch Beach as well.

A county commission elected to turn the decision over to the neighborhood’s residents. They voted in 1987 for Dana Point, leaving some in Laguna Niguel even today with a bitter taste.

“I think people still think it was the wrong decision,” Bates said. “But it’s 10 years behind us.”

After the vote, activists continued their fight in court for Monarch Beach, valued not only for the oceanfront property, but for the Ritz Carlton hotel and its valuable bed tax revenue.

In the meantime, cityhood proponents pushed ahead with incorporation, reasoning that success would put the community in a better position to be awarded the land. They also argued that residents needed to have control over development in the area.

In November 1989, 89% of voters agreed and chose cityhood. A month later, Laguna Niguel became Orange County’s 31st city.

In the end, two primary goals of cityhood proved elusive.

Incoming City Council members were shocked to discover that most of the undeveloped property in the new city was already locked into binding development agreements made by the county.

“I remember vividly we put together a report and went before the City Council,” said Tim Casey, the city manager then and now. “We told them about 5,000 homes were left to be built in Laguna Niguel, and the city had control over 33 of them.”

“You mean 3,300, right?” quizzed one council member.

“No, 33,” Casey said.

Also, the city never got Monarch Beach. The California Supreme Court ultimately denied the city’s request for a reconsideration.

So just what was being celebrated Saturday? Community leaders ticked off a range of accomplishments: For the last five years, Laguna Niguel has been either first or second in annual rankings of Orange County’s safest cities.

And despite early worries that the city would not be financially viable, its small but efficient city government is currently carrying a $25-million budget surplus.

For some of the several thousand residents who turned out for the parade, many with their children in tow, proof of the wisdom of incorporation was that they would never live anywhere else.

Residents said they measured the city’s accomplishments not in budget surpluses but in the number of baseball diamonds lit and built; in soccer fields, not crime statistics; and in community centers, not zoning measures.

Indeed, the city has poured millions into its parks and recreation facilities, lighting or building more than a dozen softball, baseball or soccer fields.

It is also in the midst of a campaign to build another half-dozen baseball fields and a similar number of soccer fields. The city’s softball league, which is also a decade old this year, is now the largest in south Orange County, with 715 members.

Ten years ago, a planning meeting for the city’s logo produced a roomful of knitted brows and puzzled expressions: What could represent a community whose most popular landmark was the Chet Holifeld Federal Building, a strange ziggurat-like building that looked to be out of the Babylonian Empire?

In the end, they chose a design that includes a view of the ocean, along with the slogan “Sea Country,” although the city includes not a foot of seafront land.

More often heard on the streets of Laguna Niguel, however, is a more practical theme: family life.

“It’s just a wonderful community to raise kids,” said Kurt Ross, 40, attending the parade with his wife and two sons, 12 and 8, before heading out to a Little League game. “It’s safe, it’s health-conscious. . . . It’s like a little big city.”