Irvine Co. to unveil luxury resort plans

June Casagrande

A luxury resort with 204 guest rooms in 40 bungalows, 52 vacation

homes, 68 shared-ownership villas, a spa and a new golf club house is

planned on about 92 acres around the Pelican Hill Golf Course.

Irvine Co. officials will unveil plans today for the upscale

Pelican Hill resort designed to capitalize on and reinforce the

Orange County coast as a resort destination.

The announcement comes on the heels of several resort openings

along the coast, including the new Balboa Bay Club and Resort, the

Montage Resort and Spa in Laguna Beach, the St. Regis Monarch Beach

resort in Dana Point and the Hyatt Regency Huntington Beach Resort &

Spa.

“Pelican Hill is probably one of the most perfect settings in the

country for this type of resort,” said Eric Prevette, president of

the Irvine Co. resort properties.

Buildings will be in the Spanish Revival style of homes and

estates built in Santa Barbara and Los Angeles in the 1920s and also

embodied by the Bel-Air resort in Los Angeles, said Robert Elliott,

Irvine Co. senior vice president of urban planning and design.

“Our whole fantasy is to be able to recreate the Old California

experience,” Elliott said. “That elegant, but casual beach experience

that California is famous for.”

Irvine Co. executives said that they hope to break ground by late

next year and open the first phase of the project by early 2006.

The company is unveiling the plans today and will send out

informational brochures to many residents of Newport Coast, including

the adjacent Pelican Crest and Pelican Hill developments. A series of

community meetings on the project will probably begin in July.

The project area was annexed to the city of Newport Beach in

January 2002 along with the rest of Newport Coast, but falls under

county jurisdiction according to agreements between the city and

county.

Company representatives said that they plan to apply to the county

for the initial permits this summer. The project consists of one- and

two-story buildings that sit at a lower elevation than the Pelican

Crest development just north of the resort.

Irvine Co. officials say that they don’t expect the project to

create significant traffic. Most users will access the property from

Newport Coast Drive, they said.

Nonetheless, community meetings on the project are expected to

cover issues such as traffic, parking and water quality. Resident

reaction, including from the managed-growth Greenlight camp, seems

sure to follow the release of the project’s details.

Councilman Tod Ridgeway, who learned about some of the resort’s

plans several months ago, said the resort would “make La Costa look

like a Howard Johnsons.”

* JUNE CASAGRANDE covers Newport Beach and John Wayne Airport. She

may be reached at (949) 574-4232 or by e-mail at

june.casagrande@latimes.com.

* PAUL CLINTON contributed to this story.