Voters Back Resort in Laguna Beach

Ending one of the most contentious political battles of the decade in Laguna Beach, the city’s voters Tuesday gave a hearty endorsement to a controversial plan for a hotel and 31 homes at Treasure Island, the former site of a mobile-home park on prime beachfront property.

“I’m elated,” said Mayor Steve Dicterow who, along with a majority of the City Council, had earlier approved the development and vocally supported it. “This is a victory for the city of Laguna Beach. It’s a great project, and the benefits to the city are unparalleled.”

Bobbi Cox, a local real estate broker and property manager who also worked for the plan, said of the development: “It’s very well-conceived. I think it will be a great asset to our community in facilities, aesthetics and financial contributions.”

Voters passed ballot Measures A and B, which ratified, respectively, a council-approved change in the city’s General Plan and its zoning ordinance to allow construction of the resort on the 30-acre site valued at as much as $40 million.

Final unofficial returns showed that Measure A won with 4,434 votes for and 3,569 votes against, while Measure B was adopted by a vote of 4,357 to 3,616. Laguna Beach has about 16,000 registered voters.

Some residents adamantly oppose the development, arguing that it would change forever the character of the picturesque city. “I think we could do far better,” said Ron Harris, co-chairman of Laguna for a Better Treasure Island Resort, a group that had battled the measures.

“This project,” Harris said, “will be way too big, way too massive and way too crowded for that site and for Laguna Beach. And the public park aspect is a joke.”

During the campaign, Harris had described the city as “a town of small-scale buildings and architecture” rather than “Miami Beach or the Hawaiian coast.” Instead of the proposed project, he said, his group would have favored a less ambitious one with no single-family residences and “a hotel that is lower in scale and utilizes the site to incorporate an elegant garden-like park.”

On Tuesday night, a disappointed Harris said, “I’m not very pleased. This is a bad project for Laguna Beach. I think the city will turn out to be a financial winner but at the cost of impacting the whole character of this town that makes it the special place that it is.”

Treasure Island was the site of a mobile-home park until July 31, 1997, when its owners were forced to close in order to settle claims by several residents. The company--Merrill Lynch Hubbard--then proposed a series of plans for the site, beginning with a 268-home gated community, but scaled the project back on the advice of the City Council.