Laguna Beach : Deadline Passes on Open Space Purchase

The deadline has passed for the city to buy the last 189 acres it is seeking to preserve as open space in Laguna Canyon but those involved say they are still negotiating.

“Everyone is looking to find a way to purchase the property,” said Mary Fegraus,executive director of the Laguna Canyon Foundation, which was formed to raise money to buy the land.

A 1990 agreement called for the city to buy the land, which is west of Laguna Canyon Road and next to Leisure World, for $33 million. The deadline was Friday.

Fegraus said the foundation now has only $800,000 toward the purchase.

Carol A. Hoffman, vice president of Irvine Co., said Friday that the company, which owns the property, has no immediate plans to develop the parcel and will still consider selling all or part of it.

“If they had a way to buy the property, we would entertain that immediately,” Hoffman said.

Laguna Beach has been buying land in the canyon over the past five years. Before the city and Irvine Co. struck the agreement, the company planned to build a housing tract on the property.

A company spokeswoman has said that the landowner could still build 1,500 homes on the final parcel.

The city had hoped to receive $25 million toward the purchase from Proposition 180, the California Parks & Wildlife Initiative, but voters rejected the measure.

A statement released by the city Thursday said that negotiators will meet again this month “to fashion a new agreement to eventually resolve the status of the remaining 189 acres of the original Laguna Laurel purchase.”