Leisure World Grapples With New Name

Is it the end of Leisure World as we know it?

The venerable retirement community, which makes up most of Laguna Woods, Orange County’s newest city, will probably change its name, possibly by the end of the year.

Two newer Leisure Worlds, in Silver Spring, Md., and near Leesburg, Va., have complicated the retirement community’s ability to use its own name on everything from brochures and letterhead to its telephone directories and shuttle buses.

So the complex says that it is time to sever ties with the heirs of Ross W. Cortese, the former fruit peddler and high school dropout whose dream of creating active adult communities across the globe left 24,000 retirement units from Florida to California by his death in 1991.

Possible replacement names: Casa de Laguna, the Village at Laguna Woods and the Villas. Organizers plan to solicit name suggestions from Leisure World’s 18,000 residents, then possibly take a short list of finalists to a ballot. As of Monday afternoon, Leisure World residents had offered 138 suggestions for new names, said Isabel Muennichow, a resident who sits on the community’s name change subcommittee.

“I don’t think we should jump to conclusions,” said Marion Rosenstein, who is also on the subcommittee. “I think the name should be short and sweet and easy to spell. That’s how I feel about it for now.”

Although it would be possible to simply adopt the name of the city, Laguna Woods, as the name of the development, most agree that would be extremely confusing, Muennichow said.

The need for a name change stems from a confounding situation in which the homeowners association owns the property, but one arm of the development company, RRLH Inc., controls the name “Leisure World.”

That means the community needs a licensing agreement to use the words “Leisure World” on just about everything. Temporary agreements are needed periodically too, if, for example, the development wants to present awards or plaques to its board of directors.

For years, the licensing of the name was not much of an issue--not in comparison, anyway, to this year’s drive to make Laguna Woods the county’s 32nd city.

But about five years ago, when Orange County real estate took a brief dive, Leisure World governors launched a marketing drive to ensure that their community was in the forefront of new retirees’ minds, said Leisure World communications manager Tanya McElhaney.

Once the governors decided to use the words “Leisure World” in an Internet site, Heidi Cortese, Ross Cortese’s heir and the chief executive officer of the development company’s umbrella organization, took notice.

The development company, Corona del Mar-based RCC Inc., “did wish to protect that name and those rights,” said its attorney, Rick Sherman.

Eventually, McElhaney said, it became clear that a new name would help the community avoid stumbling over trademark issues.

The timing is right, she said. The development, for example, is still a retirement community but is younger and more energetic than it was in past years, making “Leisure” a bit outdated. And the community owns a parcel of land off Moulton Parkway, where it may build more homes.

“What are we going to call those? They’re Leisure World--but they’re not?” McElhaney said. “We’re really thinking long-term. It’s fine now, but what if we want to do something in the future?”

Most residents seem weary of the trademark issues--and anxious to strike out on their own, under their own name. “I’m delighted that they might change it,” Rosenstein said. “I don’t think the community should be restricted as to how they use their name.”

Leaders of the name change drive hope they aren’t creating grounds for discord.

“Everybody knows this as Leisure World, and some of our people don’t like any change,” Muennichow said. “But I hope it will be even better after this.”

Times staff writer Andrew Glazer contributed to this story.