This is the latest in an occasional series on every city in Orange County.

Perception is a very powerful thing, and there are few things more visible than the success or failure of a giant shopping mall.

For a decade, the Laguna Hills Mall has slid from struggling to worse. And it took Laguna Hills with it – or to be precise it took the perception of Laguna Hills with it.

But with a huge mall metamorphosis scheduled in the next few years, it’s time to re-examine the shopping center. And it’s also time to realize that most of Laguna Hills is doing just fine, thank you.

Take the sports complex the city built some two decades ago. It includes a community center, skate park, roller hockey rink, educational playground and softball, baseball and soccer fields. Last weekend, the place was humming.

Some who should know better – like me – assumed the complex is part of Aliso Viejo. Nope, Laguna Hills.

Then there’s oh-so-tony Nellie Gail, where huge lots and private stables echo oh-so-tony Coto de Caza. If you thought Nellie Gail was part of Laguna Niguel as I did, wrong. Again, Laguna Hills.

It’s enough to drive a city manager nuts.

MALL TO BECOME ‘LIFESTYLE CENTER’

Laguna Hills City Manager Bruce Channing sits in his first floor office just a few dozen yards off El Toro Road, one of the county’s oldest thoroughfares. In many respects, the transformation of the road reflects the transformation of Laguna Hills.

Consider that a half-century ago, El Toro was the only way in South County to drive from the Santa Ana Mountains to the sea. Back then, Laguna Hills didn’t exist and the surrounding area was cattle country.

But by the 1980s, El Toro Road was nothing like the old days. Traffic crawled – when it moved at all.

Now, after much planning and construction, El Toro Road is nothing like it was a decade ago.

Thanks to road widenings, new arteries, beefier freeway ramps and synchronized traffic lights, cruising El Toro around the mall has never been better.

“Infrastructure gets old,” Channing allows. “It needs replacement. Cities go through cycles just like people do.”

And sometimes we don’t recognize when one cycle is over and a new one has begun. Like many, I’ve been avoiding El Toro Road for years, convinced any other route was faster.

As Channing ticks off the improvements, I say he still needs to add a second entrance ramp for heading southbound on I-5.

Manager since the city was incorporated in 1991, Channing stares at me for a moment and smiles. “There are those in the know,” he says as diplomatically as possible, “who bypass the El Toro entrance and take the entrance from Paseo De Valencia.”

Gulp. The next day, I test the Paseo entrance. Like butter.

Channing points out that in three years, the mall, too, will see vast change. Gone will be the old-school mall with stores inside – and its 32 percent vacancy rate. Instead, there will be something called “The Five Lagunas,” which will blend outdoor walkways with shops, restaurants and a tree-lined park with flowing stream.

The city manager calls it a lifestyle center. He says there will be enough differences so it doesn’t directly compete with the Irvine Spectrum to the north or The Shops at Mission Viejo to the south.

What about the old, nearly dead movie theater? The new owners, Merlone Geier Partners, promise a luxury theater geared toward adults with restaurant-quality food.

“We were the ugly stepchild” of the old owners, Channing admits. “We were told straight to our face that they would invest, but they never did. Promises came, and promises went.”

Under the Merlone Geier proposed plan, the lifestyle center will feature three condo-like apartment complexes of approximately 330 units. Channing explains the plan is “to create a new opportunity for younger adults to move back to the area and aging baby-boomers to downsize into a new, high-quality, urban residential environment without having to move out of the city.”

It’s a reminder that Laguna Hills at one time almost included then-Leisure World, now Laguna Woods.

‘SUPER CITY’ CONCEPT KILLED

In the early 1990s, Channing explains, Orange County considered creating a super city called Saddleback City. It had the backing of the county’s Local Agency Formation Commission and would have taken in what today is Lake Forest, Laguna Niguel, Laguna Woods and Laguna Hills.

But Laguna Woods people were concerned about taxes. Lake Forest people didn’t want to be the stepchild on the other side of the freeway. Laguna Hills people were concerned about being big-footed by Laguna Woods people … You get the idea.

After a series of votes on various incarnations, Laguna Hills came into its own and incorporated in 1991. With no real sports fields, the council voted to build what is now the Laguna Hills Community Center and Sports Complex.

The new council also refurbished several pocket parks, including Costeau Park, which features a sculpture of a prehistoric giant ground sloth and marks where thousands of Ice Age fossils were discovered.

Through the 1990s, the Laguna Hills Mall drew from a broad region as baby boomers with young children continued to discover South County. But their love for their new hometowns has grown into a challenge for Laguna Hills and surrounding cities.

Reluctant to sell and take on new property tax rates, boomers are holding onto their homes. At the same time, housing prices have skyrocketed. And boomer children, now starting their own families, need affordable housing.

The new lifestyle center, coupled with the apartments, should help attract younger residents, Channing believes.

Will all the new shops and restaurants along El Toro Road in Lake Forest hurt? Channing maintains the greater the cluster, the more visitors to the area.

Understand, Channing also embraces the aging population. Not only do Laguna Woods residents go out to eat and be entertained in Laguna Hills, they support a vast network of medical-related businesses.

Channing also is quick to note that in February, Healthgrades ranked Saddleback Memorial Medical Center in Laguna Hills as one of America’s 50 best hospitals.

Once again, I’m surprised. Perception versus reality.

Contact the writer: dwhiting@ocregister.com