O.C. to Unveil Plan for Wilderness Area

LAGUNA BEACH — Years after planners began debating proposals to open the sprawling canyons, hills and meadows of Laguna Coast Wilderness Park to the public, county officials are finally unveiling a plan.

Bounded by Laguna Beach, Newport Beach and Irvine, the wilderness area could eventually become the largest park in Orange County.

“It is one of the most important open space areas left in the county,” said Kathie Matsuyama, a senior landscape architect for the county. “What makes it unique is it is almost completely surrounded by intense urban development.”

The plan will be presented to the Coastal Greenbelt Authority next week at Irvine City Hall.

Hikers, equestrians and bicyclists said they are eager to explore the 63 miles of trails that weave through the park, which up to now have been opened mostly for guided tours only.

“To quote my equestrian friends, we’re champing at the bit,” said Alice Sorenson, a rider who lives in Irvine.

County officials said the draft will propose only scant changes inside the park. Instead, it will focus on “staging areas” at the perimeter to allow public access.

“Our concept here is, bring people to the edge of the park and then get them on those trails,” Matsuyama said.

The main entrance, one of four access points along Laguna Canyon Road, is to include a 3,000-square-foot headquarters, a 40-car parking lot and an amphitheater where rangers can give campfire talks. Another access point for equestrians will feature a corral.

Development will likely be done in stages as money becomes available. It could take three years to complete the first phase, said Tim Miller, head of the county’s Harbors, Beaches and Parks department.

That would be seven years after the first park planning workshop in February 1994. Since then, the San Joaquin Hills toll road has been built through the wilderness area, and money has become available to realign Laguna Canyon Road, which also bisects the park.

“There’s been a lot of history while this thing has been waiting to come for public review,” said Mary Fegraus, a Laguna Beach resident who was one of 120 participants in the initial planning, which was halted by the county’s 1994 bankruptcy.

Up to then, city and county officials along with teams of interested citizens had been working with renowned landscape architect Lawrence Halprin, taking field trips into the park and outlining their vision.

“That’s probably what makes this so appealing to the public,” Fegraus said. “The public has shaped it.”

The draft plan calls for the interior of the park to remain basically unchanged. Some signs will be posted, and trails will be linked, but existing pathways will account for 94% of the total.

Parking lots will be covered with permeable materials such as decomposed granite instead of concrete or asphalt, Matsuyama said, and the two-story interpretive center will be designed to blend into the landscape as much as possible.

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Protecting the park’s vast natural resources has been a critical part of the process, said Matsuyama, who co-authored the resource management plan. It covers a range of topics, including habitat enhancement, exotic plant control, fire management and public education.

County officials envision the park as a patchwork of open space owned by the county, state, Irvine Co. and city of Laguna Beach. Some of the land has already been dedicated and some will be turned over as parkland later.

The county now manages about 3,000 acres of the open space, and that will more than double as adjoining land is added.

When Crystal Cove State Park, Aliso and Wood Canyons Regional Park and expanses of land within Irvine’s city limits are considered, the wilderness area would extend to 16,000 acres, Matsuyama said. That would be more than double the size of Caspers Wilderness Park in San Juan Capistrano, which at 7,600 acres is now the county’s largest.

If the Coastal Greenbelt Authority, which oversees the park’s management, approves the draft next week, county officials will release details to the public and begin making presentations to interested agencies and homeowner associations.

“It’s very important to have a plan that we have the public consensus on,” Miller said. “We believe we’re going to get support all the way up to the Board of Supervisors.”

The greenbelt authority meeting will be from 6:30 to 9 p.m. Thursday at Irvine City Hall, 1 Civic Center Plaza. Information: (714) 834-6662.