Old Battle, New Development

DANA POINT — As the newest addition to the city’s planning staff, Daniel Bott faces a considerable task: taking on the job as project manager for the Headlands, the 122-acre bluff top above Dana Point Harbor.

Environmentalists hold the site sacred as one of the last undeveloped coastal bluff properties in Southern California; developers want to build a 400-room hotel, commercial center and 370 homes there.

“I knew of the Headlands before the job was offered to me,” said Bott, who joined the city in July as a full-time planning consultant. “I knew it would be a challenge to say the least.”

The battle over the Headlands has been one of Orange County’s most vitriolic, resulting in an anti-development referendum and a legal fight in the state Supreme Court.

The Headlands is owned by M.H. Sherman Co. and Chandis Securities Co. The latter oversees the financial holdings of the Chandler family, a major stockholder in Times Mirror Co., which publishes the Los Angeles Times.

The development dispute, which goes back decades, came to a head in April 1994, when the Dana Point City Council unanimously approved plans for the hotel, commercial center and homes.

The council’s action sparked an uproar in the community, where many residents protested, saying that development would be far too large to be suitable for the property, situated at the west end of Dana Point Harbor.

Opponents of the plan put a referendum on the November 1994 ballot to rescind the council’s action, and it passed easily. The landowners then sued the city, alleging that the referendum was unconstitutional because the owners were deprived of the right to develop their property.

A Superior Court judge upheld the referendum, and his decision was affirmed on appeal. In April, the state Supreme Court let the ruling stand.

Now the city must come up with a specific plan for the Headlands or risk another lawsuit by the developer, Councilman Harold R. Kaufman said.

“We could zone it,” Kaufman said, “but zoning doesn’t give us as much control as to what goes there as much as a specific plan. We need to protect the city so we don’t get sued. We can’t stop. We can’t just do nothing.”

Enter Bott, a 38-year-old Irvine resident with a master’s degree in environmental studies from Cal State Fullerton. His resume, beginning with an internship at the county’s Environmental Management Agency, includes jobs as a planner in private businesses on Orange County projects such as the Foothill Ranch, Laguna Niguel’s general plan and coastal projects for San Clemente.

“I’m not new to the area,” Bott said. “I graduated from Santa Ana Valley High School . . . and I remember going to Dana Strand [at the Headlands’ west end] as a young guy and surfing there.”

City staff members lauded the addition of Bott. Dana Point, incorporated in 1989, is among the county’s newer and smaller cities. Edward Knight, director of community development, said the previous three-person planning staff was too small to deal effectively with the Headlands issue.

Bott, who is on contract, will be paid $37 an hour to oversee adoption of a specific plan for the Headlands, Knight said.

The landowners and their representatives said Friday they have not worked with Bott yet but have had pleasant conversations with him in the past.

The city did not consult the landowners before hiring Bott, said Cheri Phelps, a spokeswoman for the landowners and vice president of PBR, an architectural and planning firm in Irvine. “But it sounds like he will do a good job. We’re not proposing to ruin the environment here. Half the project is to maintain open space, and we’re going to build a park there too.”

The prospect of dealing with both the owners and city residents passionate about the development issue does not faze Bott. He said he views civic activism as a sign of community pride.

“I rather like the idea that residents care about their community,” he said.

Bott said the area has two marine refuges and 45 acres of environmentally sensitive coastal sage-scrub providing habitat for the endangered Pacific pocket mouse and the gnatcatcher.

“Besides that, these bluffs have historical value,” Bott said. Members of the Cabrillo Expedition of the 1500s wrote about the Headlands in journals, and the area is mentioned numerous times by Richard Henry Dana in “Two Years Before the Mast,” his book about sailing in the 1830s. The city was named for Dana.

“I think we have to recognize the rights of the landowners, and I’m certainly aware of that,” he said. “But those rights have to be tempered and consideration given to the environmental aspects and historical heritage of the community.”