New Negotiations Set on Laguna Laurel Plan

LAGUNA BEACH —  The Irvine Co. has frozen its controversial plans to build 3,200 homes in pristine Laguna Canyon pending a round of intense negotiations with the city of Laguna Beach, which opposes the Laguna Laurel development.

“Our goal is to try to see if there’s any adjustment or any modification we can live with that would change their attitude toward the project,” Irvine Co. Vice President Larry Thomas said Friday.

The unusual bargaining session is expected to take place in early January, he said.

Environmentalists have fought development in the serene canyon for a decade. Opposition has intensified of late, culminating in a protest march Nov. 11 that drew about 7,000 people.

Two recent proposals to end the battle over the canyon have failed. In November, the Laguna Beach City Council spurned an offer by the Irvine Co. to sell 276 acres, about one-tenth of the canyon, for $38 million. On Dec. 13, Irvine officials flatly rejected the idea of moving the project to their city, with Mayor Larry Agran comparing the development to “a garbage barge in search of a port.”

Now, both the Irvine Co. and Laguna Beach have asked the county to postpone a Planning Commission hearing scheduled for Jan. 16 to consider the project’s environmental impact.

“It’s not a routine thing,” said City Councilman Robert F. Gentry, who is heading the negotiating team. “It indicates that our negotiations are serious, professional and productive. Otherwise, both sides would not have been willing to ask the Planning Commission to delay the hearing.”

The issues, Gentry said, “are, frankly, the whole future of Laguna Canyon: how the Irvine Company can turn a profit on that land, and how the cities . . . can have their environmental needs met at the same time.”

“It’s probably one of the most serious and important land-use and public-policy decisions to be made in Orange County over the decade,” he added.

Topics might include purchasing the land, moving all or part of the project, or compromising on its scale, Gentry said. He said he would like to add to the bargaining table representatives of the county and perhaps representatives of other cities whose residents have a stake in the fate of the canyon.

“We’ve never sat down and talked until 1989,” Gentry said.

Thomas said the Irvine Co. is confident that its plan to protect the canyon from environmental damage is sound and will pass muster despite the opposition. He said the decision to delay indefinitely is an attempt to reach an elusive community consensus. But, Thomas said, the responsibility for making the next proposal rests with Laguna Beach officials.

“We’d like to listen to them and see if there is common ground. . . ,” Thomas said. “But I would look to them for the initiative.”