Council Approves 59-Home Project

After developers decided to build only 59 instead of 154 units, the City Council enthusiastically approved the project on Tuesday.

“A reduction in density like this is certainly a step in the right direction,” Councilman Eddie Rose said. “This is significant.”

Citing economics, the developer, the Corona Niguel Acquisition Group of Solana Beach, decided to build 59 single-family homes off Rancho Niguel Road between Moulton Parkway and La Paz Road.

“It was a marketing decision,” said Bob Montgomery, a consultant for the Solana Beach firm. “Condominiums aren’t as easy to do and sell as they were in the past, so it made more sense to do single-family detached homes.”

There were no objections by the public raised at Tuesday’s council meeting and nobody spoke against the project at either of the two Planning Commission meetings held since March.

Mayor Patricia C. Bates also praised the developer, saying it was a “boon to the [Laguna Niguel] planned community to have more single-family homes [built] than attached homes.”

Because the area is zoned for apartments or condominiums, the council had to vote to redesignate the property’s status in order to build detached single-family homes.