Greenbelt Grows With a Sizeable Gift
A view of once private land above Aliso Canyon that will remain undeveloped as open space. Conservationists who tried unsuccessfully for years to buy the last significant undeveloped parcel in Laguna Beach, a trophy ridgeline property listed but unsold in 2001 for $50 million, saw their dream realized this week, though not in the manner they anticipated.
City officials announced on Tuesday the unexpected donation by Laguna Vista LLC of a 98-acre rectangle honecombed with environmentally sensitive habitat that sprawls between Moulton Meadows Park and the Aliso Creek golf course. Known by some as the “donut hole,” the entirely landlocked parcel is encircled by properties also designated for open space, but owned and controlled by Athens Group and its partners as part of its planned redevelopment of Aliso Creek Inn and Golf Course.
“This is a very big prize, an extraordinary addition to Laguna’s legacy of conservation,” said Derek Ostensen, a consultant who helped negotiate nine deals that added 250 acres to Laguna’s greenbelt at a cost of nearly $9 million in recent years. Of 15 parcels still on the wish-list of the Conservation Fund and Laguna Canyon Foundation, none were a bigger priority than this one, he said.
The parcel’s steep hillsides support rare coastal sage scrub habitat and a wide array of sensitive wildlife, including gnatcatcher, coast horned lizard, bobcat and possibly cactus wren, said Ostensen. City land maps show several water courses and foot trails on the parcel and much of it listed as “high value habitat,” the city’s highest classification.
Conservationists target such private in-holdings as this parcel to ensure public resources are not impacted by future development, he said.
The donation also serves as the remaining link to Aliso & Wood Canyons Wilderness Park, pointed out Mary Fegraus, the foundation’s retired executive director. “Now the inland boundary of Laguna Beach is preserved land either through state, county or city wilderness parks,” said Fegraus, who described her mood as “ecstatic” over the donation.
City Manager Ken Frank said the parcel has “been on our radar for years,” citing a failed attempt by its owners to develop the property 25 years ago and unsuccessful efforts by the foundation to start negotiations over its purchase.
Neither city officials nor conservationists say they ever made a formal proposal to the landowners, Iranian-born brothers Bahador and Daryoush Mahboubi Fardi of Beverly Hills. Realist, a data base used by title companies, lists a $1.125 million transaction to the Fardi family in 1982. The brothers also own high-profile commercial real estate in Beverly Hills, according to a source who met with them about their Laguna property. The land was listed for sale for $50 million for six months in 2001, according to the multiple listing service archive.
The donation was unsolicited and was made through an attorney a few weeks ago, City Attorney Phil Kohn said. Besides designating that the land should be preserved in perpetuity as open space, the only other caveat was that the deal conclude quickly, said Kohn, suggesting end-of-year tax considerations could be a factor in the gift. Ronald Wall, chief financial officer of Dominium Management, a representative of the Mahboubi Fardi family in Beverly Hills, did not return phone calls.
While city officials are unconcerned about the land’s value, conservationists and developers with other deals in the works are eager to know the parcel’s assessed value. Despite zoning restrictions and topographic difficulties that reduce its development potential, the parcel’s rare habitat would drive up its value were it to serve as replacement property for a developer needing mitigation credits. The county currently demands $50,000 an acre to replace coastal sage scrub. Another recent mitigation credit deal included riparian habitat that fetched $125,000 an acre.
“Part of the issue with this property was that it’s particularly hard to value,” said Scott Ferguson, Southern California director of the Conservation Fund, which buys land for parks and open space.
He, as well as Ostensen, praised city officials and the landowners for forging the land deal, which amounts to a windfall for sustaining more conservation efforts. “It allows us to use that money for other acquisitions or restoration,” Ferguson said.
At least once Ferguson and Ostensen again have access to park bond funds, frozen for the last year due to the state’s debt crises. Previously, they tapped $12 million in Prop. 12 funding approved by voters in 2000. With remaining funds, Ostensen predicts conservationists will in the next two years gain title to remaining privately owned undeveloped parcels near the greenbelt, which now spans 17,000 acres in Crystal Cove State Park, Laguna Coast Wilderness Park, Aliso & Wood Canyons Wilderness Park and Alta Laguna Park.
“This open space effort began 50 years ago with Jim Dilley. This donation puts that end in sight,” Ostensen said.
