Laguna Resort’s Mooring Proposal Is Making Waves

Three regulatory agencies have approved a resort developer’s plan to moor a pleasure craft off Laguna Beach, even though city officials knew nothing about it and say it would violate local laws.

The Phoenix-based Athens Group is looking to add panache to its five-star resort under construction at Treasure Island in south Laguna by offering hotel guests sunset cruises and fishing expeditions aboard a 50-foot boat. It wants to build a concrete mooring and buoy system in about 18 feet of water near a fragile marine reserve.

The Army Corps of Engineers, the State Lands Commission and state Water Resources Control Board have signed off on the developer’s plan. Application documents obtained from the agencies show the mooring site at two locations--either 550 feet or 750 feet offshore.

The proposal will go before the California Coastal Commission in November. Several attempts to reach the Athens Group for comment were unsuccessful.

City officials are clearly irked that the developer has not let them in on its plan.

“Being a business person, I recognize the developer’s primary purpose in life is to make a profit,” said Councilman Wayne Baglin. “Sometimes, they don’t feel dealing with the city of Laguna Beach is the best way to get to that point.”

The proposed mooring site is just outside an existing city marine reserve and within the area of a proposed state marine reserve.

One of the major issues for city officials is how the 275-room hotel plans to get guests to and from the pleasure boat. The city forbids motorboats from coming ashore.

A Coastal Commission official said the resort plans to take guests to the boat in an inflatable dinghy with a small motor.

Marina Cazorla, an environmental specialist in the commission’s San Francisco office, said an Athens Group official told her last week that the resort would abide by the city’s rules by having guests wade a few feet into the ocean to climb into the inflatable boat, rather than bring it fully ashore.

Laguna Beach officials say even that plan would violate city law.

Mark Klosterman, the city’s chief of marine safety, said motorized boats are forbidden within 200 yards of shore. The prohibition would ban the pleasure craft from mooring at the 550-foot offshore site. But the site 750 feet offshore would not be affected.

The firm was not obligated to tell the city about its mooring intentions because the plans are under state purview. City officials learned of the proposal only in recent weeks, though the developer has been working on it for more than a year.

The Corps of Engineers gave its approval on Oct. 4, 2000. Because of procedural rules, the state water board’s approval would have had to come earlier, said Stacey Baczkowski, an environmental specialist with the San Diego Regional Water Quality Control Board.

The Coastal Commission, which received a project description on Oct. 4, 2000, is the sole remaining hurdle to the mooring, and it nearly gave administrative approval in September. But after local environmentalist Garry Brown noticed the plan on the commission’s agenda and raised objections, the panel decided to hold a full public hearing.

“We got an objection to the administrative permit that was originally proposed,” said Peter Douglas, the commission’s executive director. “I’m glad we’re having a public hearing on it.”

Some local residents contend that the developer is trying to sneak something past the city that would harm the coastal environment.

“It would render that marine reserve dysfunctional,” said Michael Beanan, vice president of the South Laguna Civic Assn. “Imagine you have a dedicated greenbelt reserve and you allow Winnebagos to transport people through it.”

Brown, executive director of the environmental watchdog group Orange County CoastKeeper, said he suspects that the developer wants to eventually allow guests to moor their boats offshore, and this is the first piece of a much larger plan.

“They’re never going to be satisfied with one. They’re going to want a bunch more,” he said. “If they’re going to try to piecemeal a mooring marina, let’s call it what it is.”