Residents Seeking Deal With County on Alicia Parkway

A residents group in Laguna Niguel, angry that a section of Alicia Parkway still is not built, will drop its suit over the matter if the county guarantees construction will begin within eight months, a group spokesman said Thursday.

But a county official said the group may be asking for more than the county can promise.

At issue is a 1987 agreement between a housing developer in Laguna Niguel and the county, in which the developer pledged to complete Alicia Parkway from Pacific Park Drive to Aliso Creek Road.

The citizens group charges that the developer still is not doing anything to finish the artery, which the group says would help relieve traffic congestion in the area.

“Right now, the county’s agreement is only giving us a road that’s on paper,” said Paul Christiansen, president of the Laguna Niguel Taxpayers Assn. “We don’t want just another paper road in south Orange County. We have too many of those already.”

8-Month Deadline Sought

Christiansen said the residents’ group is demanding that the county set a deadline of eight months from now for work to begin. If the county cannot get that guarantee, it should rescind its contract with the developer, Shapell Industries of Beverly Hills, he said.

The Laguna Niguel Taxpayers Assn., which has about 80 members, sued the county in May, charging it with breach of contract in its agreement with Shapell. In exchange for county approval for the 1,232-acre Country Village development in Laguna Niguel, Shapell pledged to build the missing segment of Alicia Parkway.

The group won a default judgment on July 25 because the county failed to respond to the suit. Deputy County Counsel Edward N. Duran said that the failure to respond was an oversight and that he has petitioned Orange County Superior Court to set aside the default judgment. The matter is scheduled to be heard Aug. 18 before Judge William F. Rylaarsdam. In the meantime, Duran and Christiansen are scheduled to meet next Thursday to discuss terms of a possible settlement.

Christiansen said his group also would require that the county obtain consent from the federal government within 90 days for Alicia Parkway to extend over federal land at the Chet Holifield Federal Building at Avila Road.

Duran said Thursday that he had not yet seen the group’s proposed settlement terms. But, he said, “it does seem like a lot to ask. . . . I’m not sure that it’s possible for the county to promise some of those things.”

Both Christiansen and county officials said the federal government is literally a roadblock in the plans to complete Alicia Parkway. A key stretch of the missing link would cross federal land at the federal building, known as the Ziggurat.

And an official of the federal General Services Administration recently told the county that the government is considering expanding the building and therefore does not want to yield land for highway construction.

Christiansen said that the county knew all along that federal approval was needed for use of the land and that, therefore, the county never should have entered into the contract with Shapell.

“The contract has been a sham all along,” Christiansen said. “They promised us a highway that may never be built.”

He charged that Shapell has been able to proceed with large-scale residential development “while all the taxpayers of this area get is more traffic.”

$7 Million for Expansion Work

A spokesman for Shapell Industries last week dismissed similar criticism from Christiansen. The spokesman said Shapell had spent $7 million for expansion work on Moulton Parkway and Alicia Parkway since 1987.

Christiansen, however, said he sees no evidence of construction on Alicia Parkway. He reiterated his belief that the contract should be investigated by the county grand jury.

“What we have in this contract is a real can of worms,” he said.