The View From Above

If you’d been around in 1911 or thereabouts, you could have bought a lot in the Arch Beach Heights neighborhood of Laguna Beach for $10.

A handbill from the Arch Beach Heights Co. boasted that Laguna Beach has a “good hotel, post office, stores, telephone, and livery.”

“A Square Deal and a Good Investment,” the handbill called the 25-by-100-foot lots.

Today, Arch Beach Heights is a neighborhood of 730 homes high in the hills south of downtown Laguna. Among its charms are wide ocean and canyon views and relative isolation. Only three streets lead up into the community, and the northern boundary is the Aliso & Wood Canyons Regional Park.

The Heights’ hilltop perch and nearby open space have become prime enjoyments of new homeowners Valerie and Fletcher Swift, who moved there in December 1998.

Valerie has a marketing communications business in Laguna and Fletcher works in El Segundo for the Gartner Group, information technology consultants.

The couple moved to Laguna in January 1998 and began house-hunting. After almost a yearof searching, they found a three-bedroom, two-bath home for $330,000. The price, affordable by Laguna standards, fit their budget.

“We jumped on it,” said Valerie Swift. “We have a view of the ocean, which we wanted. An added bonus is the hiking in the canyons.”

They also enjoy the wildlife--the deer, the coyotes--as well as the 10-acre Moulten Meadows Park--open to all residents, where there is a soccer field, basketball and tennis courts and a playground.

Though Valerie does not face a commute to work, Fletcher’s job in El Segundo is a different story, but not a serious concern as he frequently is calling on clients in Orange County.

“When I do need to go into the office, I take Pacific Coast Highway north to Newport Coast Drive and catch the 73 and then the San Diego Freeway north,” he said. “It takes an hour and 15 minutes if I leave at 6 a.m.”

New Heights residents Gino Fordiani and his wife, Diane, had been living in nearby Dana Point but wanted to move to Laguna to be closer to Gino’s plumbing business in town. Diane is a sales manager at Macy’s in Laguna Hills.

Like the Swifts, they also were fortunate to find a good buy in Arch Beach Heights. They paid $365,000 in January 1999 for a three-bedroom, 2 1/2-bath home that had been on the market for more than $400,000 but had fallen out of escrow.

“The home was built in 1975, and they had not done any remodeling,” said Gino Fordiani. “We remodeled the kitchen--all new appliances, new lighting and plumbing fixtures.”

A Spectrum

of List Prices

They have a small lot but a great view. “That is what sold us on this home,” Fordiani said.

Mary Ann Loehr, a Realtor with First Team Nolan, said home prices vary in the Heights.

Currently, the lowest-priced home on the market--a three-bedroom, two-bath home with ocean, Catalina and city lights views--is listed at $379,000. The split-level home also has a large deck.

At the top end of the price range is a 2,577-square-foot home built in 1963 on three lots and priced at $935,000. The four-bedroom, 2 3/4-bath home was remodeled in 1994. There are skylights, a gazebo, a deck and ocean views. The kitchen has granite counters, and the living room has a marble fireplace.

Currently under construction is a three-bedroom, 2 1/2-bath 3,700-square-foot home that will be priced at $1.25 million. This home features a huge master suite and lots of decking to take advantage of the views.

The buyer will be able to select many of the finishing touches on the home, which was designed by James Conrad, a well-known name in Laguna.

Loehr, who lives in the area, said Heights residents delight in not only the views but also the wildlife.

“It’s not at all unusual to see a family of deer crossing the street or in your backyard,” she said.

And the park is popular with residents. “Any time I drive by, I see groups of people walking or playing tennis,” she said. “Everybody up here uses that park.”

Jim Law, a Realtor in Laguna for many years, and his wife, Jean, moved to the Heights in 1950. At the time, homes of 1,500 square feet were selling for $14,000 to $16,000 on the 25-by-100-foot lots. The lots alone were selling for $2,000, he said.

In 1970, Law said, he had a listing on 33 lots--a package deal at $99,500. There was no buyer then, although he said that some of the lots may have sold since then. The lots were situated on “paper streets,” which hadn’t been built yet. Many, on steep grades in the lower section of the Heights, are still undeveloped.

The slope there is so steep, according to Laguna City Manager Ken Frank, that the city has no plans to build streets. “Most people would agree that the lots are unbuildable by today’s standards,” he said. Over the last decades, Frank said, 30 or more lots have been donated back to the city by their owners just to get them off the tax rolls.

Tomi and Kevin Walsh have lived in the Heights since 1972, when they bought a newly built three-bedroom, two-bath home on a small lot for $42,500.

The Walshes had been married for two years and were renting in Los Angeles when Kevin Walsh was transferred to Orange County.

“His cousin lived in Laguna Beach and we had visited them,” Tomi Walsh said. “In looking for a house to buy, we looked at some of the older beach cottages. But the view in the Heights appealed to us, plus the house was brand new.”

One of the concerns for some Heights families is transporting children down to the main part of town. For the Walshes, who raised daughter Kelley in the home, it was never a problem.

Tomi Walsh felt that driving her daughter up and down the hill gave her better control of Kelley’s comings and goings. There is also a small city bus that operates hourly, six days a week.

There is school bus service to Top of the World Elementary School and Thurston Middle School. But there is no bus service to the city’s high school.

A popular topic among Heights homeowners these days is an assessment district formed to provide funds to install underground utility lines. Residents are concerned about the expense.

“Roughly, the cost will be around $8,000 to $10,000 per home,” said city manager Frank.

Pricey Long-Term

Improvements

There will also be a fee to connect each house to the utility, he said, which should not be great unless the house is a long way from the hookup. Frank said the assessment district will sell bonds to underwrite the work, and homeowners will pay off the bonds over 20 years through their tax bills, or they may pay their portions in full. Work is set to begin this month.

“Overall, we will see the house values go up, in some cases $20,000 to $30,000,” the city manager said, “in improving the views by removing things like poles and transformers.”

Marian Bond is a La Habra Heights freelance writer.