2019 in review: Top stories of the year in Laguna Beach
With the introduction of six major development projects, an update of the downtown plan and relaxation of design review requirements, a tidal wave of change gained momentum in Laguna Beach in the past year.
Here are some of Laguna‘s top stories of 2019:
Downtown Specific Plan update begins council review
After seven years of work by city staff and deliberation among local officials and the public, a comprehensive update of Laguna Beach’s Downtown Specific Plan reached the City Council in December.
The 177-page document was introduced to the council at its meeting last week. Hearings and revisions are expected to continue in the coming year.
The plan will dovetail with the Downtown Action Plan, which might include as many as 20 new projects that could include changes to tree wells, pavement, stormwater harvesting practices, crosswalks and bicycle infrastructure.
The Downtown Specific Plan was originally adopted in 1989. The city says its primary objective is to “preserve and enhance the unique character of the downtown.”
Six major developments in pipeline, courtesy of Laguna Beach Co.
Millionaire real estate investor Mo Honarkar brought forward six new Laguna Beach development proposals this year — the most recent being the Museum Hotel, which underwent its first concept review at a contentious Planning Commission meeting in October.
The five other projects are restoring Hotel Laguna; residential, retail and public pathway development on the ocean side of South Coast Highway between Laguna Avenue and Legion Street; reconfiguring 777 Laguna Canyon Road, site of the former Bartlett Center and current home to Art-A-Fair; the Cleo Hotel, which would replace the Holiday Inn on the corner of Cleo Street and South Coast Highway; and residential development at Laguna Canyon Road and Canyon Acres Drive.
The city approved a memorandum of understanding with Honarkar’s Laguna Beach Co. during the summer and instituted a special fee that would require the company to cover 100% of all city costs related to the projects.
The Laguna Beach Co. also suggested consolidating the Laguna College of Art + Design across Laguna Canyon Road from its current main campus, but the college declined in August, saying the idea wasn’t financially viable.
City settles with homeless advocacy group
Laguna Beach reached a settlement in September with Orange County Catholic Worker, a nonprofit that provides food and aid to the poor, ahead of potential litigation by the organization on behalf of the city’s homeless.
The settlement, approved by U.S. District Judge David Carter, called on the city to work with trained personnel to offer available shelter placement; assess the needs of people with disabilities to provide appropriate placement and reasonable accommodations; and ensure that the number of beds available at the city-funded homeless shelter — the 45-bed Alternative Sleeping Location at 20652 Laguna Canyon Road — doesn’t fall beneath 60% of the city’s unsheltered individuals identified in the countywide 2019 Point in Time count. The January count determined that Laguna Beach had 71 unsheltered people.
Orange County Catholic Worker was one of the main plaintiffs in a 2018 federal lawsuit against Orange County and the cities of Costa Mesa, Orange and Anaheim that contended homeless people were being pushed out of encampments and back into surrounding cities without a plan to provide them with adequate shelter and housing.
Council outlines policies on civility for public and officials
The City Council approved a resolution in September outlining policies for conduct by both the public and city officials in response to what some officials viewed as a decline in civility at public meetings.
Some residents had cited online debates on Nextdoor and Facebook and criticized Councilman Peter Blake, who has made pointed comments about some residents and local groups.
The resolution outlines rules that say city officials must, among other things, treat everyone courteously, listen respectfully, exercise self-control, give open-minded consideration to all viewpoints and provide fair and equal treatment to all people and matters before the city.
The public will be expected to abide by similar rules, but in addition can’t engage in “disorderly or boisterous conduct” such as applause, whistling or booing or bring any signs, placards or banners if the presiding officer — the mayor or the chairperson of another city panel — determines they will disrupt a meeting.
Laguna Beach man charged with murder of his mother
Matthew Bryson McDonald was charged with murder and faced a sentencing enhancement allegation of use of a knife in the slaying of his mother, Megan Estes Hampton, 61, in August at the home they shared in Laguna Beach.
McDonald entered a not guilty plea in September and is being held at Orange County Jail with bail set at $1 million. He is due in court for a pretrial hearing Jan. 24.
It was the first reported homicide in the city since 2012.
Homeowners appeal order to tear down controversial seawall
An appeal was filed in October in response to an Orange County Superior Court judge’s decision to uphold a California Coastal Commission order in 2018 to tear down a long-disputed seawall at a Laguna Beach home.
Judge Randall Sherman ruled in July that homeowners Jeffrey and Tracy Katz were to remove the seawall at the property at 11 Lagunita Drive, above Victoria Beach, but removed a $1-million fine imposed by the commission.
An agreement reached in court in August dropped the homeowners’ attempts to have the state pay $25 million for the property and compensate them for lost rental income. The agreement allowed the Katzes to appeal.
The roughly 5,000-square-foot house was built in 1952. Its previous owners constructed the seawall — about 11 feet tall and 80 feet long — in 2005 as an emergency measure, but the permit later expired.
The Katzes argue that they had performed city-approved minor repair and maintenance to the property — work not significant enough to trigger a commission requirement to remove the wall if the home were to have a major remodel.
Fire safety committee releases report
The city Wildfire Mitigation and Fire Safety Subcommittee released a report in July following months of research that took city officials to Paradise to see the ruins of last year’s Camp fire. The report detailed more than 40 recommendations to fortify Laguna Beach against potential wildfires.
Twenty-nine recommendations were geared toward expanding outreach and emergency alerts, increasing efforts to clear dry vegetation that could fuel wildfires, placing power lines underground along Coast Highway and refining evacuation plans.
About 90% of Laguna is in very high fire hazard severity zones, according to the city. There are only three roadways out for a town that attracts 6 million visitors in the summer, in addition to its 23,000 residents.
The City Council has allocated $23 million toward mitigation efforts and recently received the first quarterly report on projects expected in the next two years.
Laguna Beach is in the process of installing a citywide outdoor emergency warning system, with the first phase expected to be completed by February and the second phase in May.
Other projects — including placing utility lines underground and installing two fire-detection cameras — are expected to continue into the next year.
City relaxes design review processes
The City Council took steps in July to relax some of the requirements of the design review process for property owners by allowing appeals of administrative design review items to go directly to the council without first having to pass through the Design Review Board.
The council also voted to have staff handle applications for air conditioning units and to transfer authority for some public works and capital improvement projects to the Planning Commission. Council members also shortened the period of notification required to 21 days.
The ordinance was given final approval at the council’s Sept. 10 meeting.
Permit for controversial artist work/live project is kept alive
Against community backlash, the City Council in June upheld a decision made at an April Planning Commission hearing that would allow for sculptor Louis Longi to build his long-sought artists’ work/live community proposed for Laguna Canyon.
The development would include two two-story buildings with 28 housing units, six art studios and gallery space.
City municipal code allows two years after a city permit’s effective date to begin construction on a project. The Planning Commission can approve a two-year extension and a one-year extension after that, totaling five years before the permit would effectively expire. Longi’s permit was approved in 2014 and the city granted both extensions, which expired in April this year.
Longi requested the extensions while his project was tied up in California Coastal Commission review and multiple legal battles.
Planning commissioners said the city permit should have been effective only once the Coastal Commission approved a coastal development permit Aug. 9, 2017.
Settlement reached in dispute over sewage treatment facility
A settlement agreement in a dispute over costs for a sewage treatment facility called for the Moulton Niguel Water District to pay $4.8 million and continue paying invoices related to contractual obligations through 2030.
The settlement, filed May 10 in Riverside County Superior Court, came two years after the South Orange County Wastewater Authority and its member agencies Emerald Bay Service District, South Coast Water District and city of Laguna Beach filed a lawsuit against Moulton Niguel, alleging that it violated contractual agreements as an authority member and failed to pay $755,871 in bills for infrastructure projects.
That number had climbed to $2.1 million by the time the agreement was filed.
Moulton Niguel also agreed to pay $2.7 million to reimburse the plaintiffs for legal fees, according to the settlement.
First phase of Village Entrance Project completed
With renovations of parking Lots 10 and 11 and the installation of walking trails and landscaping between Art-A-Fair and Forest Avenue, the first phase of the long-awaited Village Entrance project was completed in May.
The second phase is underway and is expected to be completed by summer.
The Village Entrance project aims to revitalize the Laguna Canyon Road gateway and is 30 years in the making. The City Council approved the $8.4-million construction bid in August and broke ground in September.
Progress continues for the design of an art installation for the entrance.
American flag design stays on Laguna Beach police cars
Laguna Beach made national headlines in April when it became the center of a debate on whether an American flag design on the city’s police cars was patriotic or threatening.
The City Council decided the design would stay. The council first agreed in February to redesign the city’s mostly white Ford Explorer police vehicles with a black-and-white look and the image of Old Glory running through the word “police” on the doors.
Some residents felt the new design on a police car was threatening, intimidating and harassing.
Council moves historic preservation ordinance forward
In March, the City Council voted unanimously to perform an initial California Environmental Quality Act study of the proposed historic preservation ordinance that would eliminate the city’s inventory that earmarks 852 properties as historic and do away with property age requirements for historic designation on the city’s official register.
The council also agreed for the draft ordinance to align the city’s current standards with that of the state’s and allow for applicants to simultaneously apply for incentives and acceptance to the historic register.
Officials also agreed to change the municipal code to exempt historic properties from some elements of the design review process required of property owners when seeking permission from the city for modifications.
Introduction of the ordinance is tentatively scheduled for April 21 if an environmental impact report is required.
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