Bren Was Just Teasing When He Put Laguna Laurel Up for a Bid

The negotiations between the Irvine Co. and the city of Laguna Beach and area environmental groups for purchase of the Laguna Laurel property in Laguna Canyon are now as close to complete impasse as negotiations can get.

The major stumbling block to meaningful progress in continued negotiations was the final selling price demanded by the Irvine Co.’s Donald Bren. That price was $90 million for the total project. The Laguna Beach representatives, combing every possible funding source for possible dollars, could see no possible scenario that would raise anything in excess of $70 million without a very high risk of a default down the line.

On the surface, the Irvine Co. proposal appears generous and reasonable because the land is appraised at $105 million and the financing terms constitute an additional gift of funds.

From the beginning, the Irvine Co. representatives have said they would sell the land at its appraised value. But herein lies the rub. Their appraised value was, and is, considered by them to be the land value developed to its highest economic use.

While holding to this stance, the Irvine Co. also insisted there be inserted in the deed a restriction that on sale the land could be used only for wilderness and similar open space purposes and could not be developed into commercial or housing uses later by others. This deed restriction, however, changes the nature of the land use and its resulting value.

There is no doubt that Donald Bren was surprised initially by the size and the success of the Laguna Canyon Walk and by the countywide support for open space shown in the Moore survey.

His task, as the county’s prime entrepreneur, was to defuse all of this, put a truly concerned environmental face on the Irvine Co., go through a most rational discussion process with the environmentalists, set conditions that seemed reasonable but he knew could not be attained, put out a press release showing the effort and the concern of the Irvine Co. and that they tried to find every way possible to make the deal jell.

They knew from the beginning of the process that if they stuck with a price reasonable, but too high for the “local yokels” to touch, the deal would fall apart at the end and they could develop the canyon with the development project they originally planned. The Bren Plan went according to script.

Donald Bren is not a financial fool. He is not a conservationist either. He views land in terms of the highest amount of money it can earn. That is his business and he is very good at it.

Anyone on the Laguna Beach side of the negotiation table who had any other illusion about the process they were engaged in can see me about a bridge I would like to sell. I feel bad about the many hours so many fine people from the county and Laguna spent in this fruitless process.

I don’t feel bad about the time the Irvine Co. folks spent there, for that is what Don Bren is paying them to do. And in the end, all of us lose a beautiful wild canyon to more houses and a golf course.

SINCLAIR JONES

Laguna Beach