O.C. Preservationists Losing Patience

The three billboards hoisted up Burma Shave-style along Laguna Canyon Road just north of Laguna Coast Wilderness Park are clearly intended to provoke:

WE HAVE PARK BOND MONEY . . . LET’S GET IT DONE IRVINE COMPANY.

The message is courtesy of the Laguna Canyon Foundation, which warns that the clock is ticking on sealing a deal to preserve 175 acres next to the park as open space, rather than have it be developed with more than 1,500 homes.

The Irvine Co., which owns the land, helped secure $12.5 million in state bond money to protect the parcel as part of a good-faith deal with environmentalists. Yet now that the funds are about to be available, foundation officials say they can’t get the company to discuss a deal. They say other discretionary state money that could be added to the bond money to buy the parcel is available now but will dry up as the economy cools and tax dollars are steered toward more pressing problems.

Irvine Co. spokesman Rich Elbaum said the company is negotiating at its own pace to sell the land.

“We are continuing preliminary discussions on all this,” he said, declining to comment on what the asking price might be.

“When we talked to them last July, there was still a lot of extra state money around,” said foundation Executive Director Mary Fegraus, standing next to a utility pole on a hilltop in the park’s Dilley Greenbelt Preserve section. “You know what is going on with that money now? It is going to these lines overhead.”

The parcel, known as Laguna Laurel, would seem an almost insignificant addition to the 17,000-acre park system, which includes Aliso & Wood Canyons Wilderness Park and Crystal Cove State Park. But the land, envisioned as a wildlife corridor that would extend to the Cleveland National Forest, was long ago approved by Orange County for 1,514 homes--which environmentalists say would be a tragic blight on the landscape.

Laguna Woods also is eager to move forward with negotiations. It would be the actual purchaser of the land, with the help of the state bond money; the foundation would broker the deal. City officials are updating their general plan and want to know whether they should plan for an entryway into the park or deal with the repercussions of a new road and houses next door.

“For us, this is the right time to resolve this issue,” said City Manager Leslie Keane.

“The bond was approved. So there is a lot of feeling in the public that we should be moving forward with this.”

Laguna Laurel is one of only two remaining parcels in the canyon slated for development. The other, also owned by the Irvine Co., is an adjacent 583-acre plot in Irvine. Plans call for development of 750 homes on 173 acres there, leaving the rest as open space.

Fegraus said the city zoned for homes on the second parcel before the property became part of the envisioned wildlife corridor. She said preservationists and city officials are exploring possibilities for shifting that development elsewhere.

Their immediate focus is on Laguna Laurel. Development there could involve leveling the grassy hills where cattle now graze and extending a road through the wilderness area.

“Even though the land is green and the cattle are grazing, those hills are still in danger of being bulldozed,” Fegraus said.

The $12.5 million in bond money approved by voters in March 2000 may not even cover a third of the price of the 175 acres. The last time environmentalists made a go at buying the land--six years ago--the price tag was $33 million.

That deal fell through after voters rejected a state parks and wildlife initiative that would have pumped $25 million into efforts to purchase the land. Shortly thereafter, the Irvine Co. agreed to hold off on any development.

The environmental groups figure that the parcel’s price has gone up. But just how much is a mystery.

“They have yet to tell us how much they are looking for,” Fegraus said. “We will keep signs up until they make up their mind.”

Scott Ferguson of the Trust for Public Land in Laguna Beach is helping negotiate the deal. He advises patience.

“The Irvine Co. has a lot of other issues going on,” he said. “This just needs to rise to top of their pile.”

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Canyon Land

Irvine Co. land

Source: County of Orange