Leisure World Up in Arms Over Planned Development : Land-use: The retirement enclave tries to block a commercial-industrial complex from zoned open space.

LAGUNA HILLS —  A proposal by the founder of Leisure World to build a massive industrial and commercial complex in an area zoned for open space has triggered an uproar in the retirement community, with hundreds of residents joining a fight to stop the project.

Officials of the Community Assn. of Leisure World announced plans Thursday to collect 10,000 signatures asking the county to reject the proposed development, planned for a 173-acre plot at the southwest corner of the intersection of El Toro Road and Moulton Parkway.

The development would be built by Rossmoor Partners and Ross Cortese, a major shareholder in the company, who built the Leisure World retirement community in the 1960s.

“We all feel that we are being betrayed by our founder,” said Ed Estrin, 75, president of the community group and a 16-year resident of Leisure World. “When we bought houses here, we were told that the land there will remain a greenbelt, not turned into office building and muffler shops.”

Cortese has defended the development, saying that the complex will create hundreds of jobs and that his company is committed to improving the roads to handle the additional traffic it will generate.

Cortese’s application before the county Planning Commission to rezone the land from open space to commercial use is his third bid to develop the tract. The previous attempts were beaten back after organized opposition from Leisure World residents.

Paul Freeman, a spokesman for Rossmoor Partners, said that Cortese is addressing residents’ concerns and that while the 173-acre plot is not within the gates of the retirement community, the land was “always envisioned to be an extension of Leisure World” because it will create jobs and provide services to the enclave’s 21,000 residents.

Leisure World residents complain that the development--which would include office buildings, restaurants and at least one shopping center--would increase traffic along already-congested Moulton Parkway and El Toro Road, which runs past the nearby Laguna Hills Mall.

“Our reflexes have slowed considerably over the years,” said Jack Sylvester, 83, a former Beverly Hills developer who lives at Leisure World. “Are we able to cope with the jockeys that will drive along our streets at greater speeds?”

Eileen Dow, a former City Council candidate in Tustin, said she had collected dozens of signatures opposing the project.

“There’s no way anyone can approve this project and have a clear conscience,” Dow said. “With all the traffic, the congestion and the pollution, it’s going to kill us.”

Opponents have support from at least two government agencies that also oppose the project. Easton R. Roberts, chairman of the El Toro Water District, told a Leisure World audience of about 250 people that the district does not have the resources to service the businesses in the proposed development.

“We just do not have the water in this time of drought and cutbacks,” Roberts said. “If Mr. Cortese gets the water to us, we can service his park. . . . He can start the development, but we just cannot hook him up.”

Robert Peterson, an official with the county’s Environmental Management Agency, said his department also recommended that county planners reject the application.

Peterson said the Moulton-El Toro intersection is already one of the most congested in Orange County, adding that the development would add 24,000 vehicles a day at that crossroads.

“For years we have considered that area to be open space, and we have geared our traffic plans with that in mind,” Peterson said.

Cortese, who is considered a pioneer in developing U.S. retirement communities, is making a personal appeal to Leisure World residents.

He has bought full-page ads in the Leisure World News, the community’s weekly newspaper, and mailed letters to the 21,000 residents, telling them that the project is beneficial “not only to Orange County and Laguna Hills, but especially to our community of Leisure World.”

If the project goes through, Cortese said, he will donate to Leisure World $1 million and 11 1/2 acres of land. In addition, he promised to expand existing Leisure World equestrian stables and trails, build a new county senior community center and spend at least $12 million upgrading area roads to help absorb extra traffic.

He insisted that the project would bring environmental and economic benefits to the area.

But many residents of Leisure World said they are not persuaded by Cortese’s correspondence.

“A lot of us have decided that we’re going to win this one,” said Samuel M. Kirbens, a retired judge. “We’re getting engulfed by pollution and development, and we’re going to fight to the end.”

In 1982, Leisure World residents halted a similar project. They collected more than 12,000 opposition signatures when it was learned that Irvine planned to annex the property into that city and rezone it. Two years ago, the Golden Rain Foundation, Leisure World’s governing body, opposed a second application by Cortese’s group to build on the land.

But last year, the foundation signed an agreement that it would not oppose the development in return for Cortese’s commitments to donate $1 million in cash, 11 1/2 acres of land and make the other improvements if the project is built.

Al Hanson, past president of the Golden Rain Foundation, said the group accepted a “compromise” because it feared that the land would be included in the boundaries of Laguna Hills, a new city approved by voters in the last election, and that the project would be built anyway.

He said Leisure World would then have lost its influence over the development because the retirement community would not be included in the new city.

As it turned out, neither Leisure World nor the disputed 173-acre parcel is part of the new city, which will incorporate Dec. 21.

“It’s to the community’s benefit to accept the project,” said Hanson, noting Cortese’s commitments.

Officials of the community association dispute Hanson’s argument and say their major task is stopping the development. Residents have already picketed the site, and dozens of volunteers are going door to door to ask neighbors to sign petitions. So far, about 5,000 signatures have been collected.

“More than 90% of the residents are opposed to this development,” said Estrin. “They get mad when you mention it.”

Correspondent Len Hall contributed to this report