Plans for a permanent Promenade on Forest in Laguna Beach got the signoff from the California Coastal Commission, with at least one commissioner calling it a model for other California communities.
The promenade — already temporarily created out of Forest Avenue in the city’s downtown — was approved to become permanent by the city in June.
Born out of the pandemic as a lifeline for local businesses who could move customers outside, the Promenade on Forest has become a town gathering and shopping spot with temporary chairs, tables and a few platforms surrounded by restaurants, boutiques, art shops and specialty stores. Making it permanent would include removing the curbs, sidewalks, and parking, and replacing them with decorative pavers and unique landscape features.
But two resident groups, Village Laguna and Friends of Forest Avenue, opposed the idea, citing a resulting lack of parking, a loss for businesses during the construction phase, worries about flooding, and criticism that the change is ruining the historical character of what they consider the town’s gateway.
On Friday, Aug. 15, the groups took their appeal to the Coastal Commission, asking for a complete new hearing on the project and also asking the commission to find issues with what the city proposed.
“We ask that you find that our appeal raises a substantial issue by violating our local coastal plan,” said Merrill Anderson, president of Village Laguna, citing data that he said showed a substantial reduction in parking from a previous parking plan that said “the city could not remove public spaces if the parking occupancy level exceeded 85%. The coastal commission approved that number in 2020.”
He also argued that raising the street to store level entrances would heighten flooding threats, adding that in the last 55 years, there have been three 100-year level floods.
Coastal commissioners, however, commended the promenade plan and emphasized that, in future projects, parking issues should not be a primary consideration.
“We’re really seeing a dramatic shift in how people are able to make the decision and get out of their car,” said Commission Ariel Kelley, adding that two studies provided by the city show that the project is “clearly in the confines of the Local Coastal Plan.”
“This is a model we should really be celebrating and looking at the on-demand transit services and other things they are doing,” she said. “This is a great project because it will get people out into the public realm, out of cars, and experiencing community and having a relationship with the beach.”
Commission staff cited a 2022 traffic study by a city consultant, which said there likely wouldn’t be a “significant impact on the parking conditions throughout the weekday and weekend because the combined utilization rate of the on-street and off-street parking facilities remained under 85%.”
In their conclusion, the commission staff determined that the city’s staff had provided sufficient support, demonstrating that a combination of transit services and additional parking opportunities at the city’s library and other designated lots was “adequate support that there is no issue with the city approval.”
Following the decision, Laguna Beach Mayor Alex Rounaghi voiced his appreciation for the commissioner’s decision.
“Making the promenade permanent will turn lower Forest from a temporary pilot into a lively community gathering place while enhancing our downtown,” he said.
A final design is expected to come back to the council in late September, then it will go out for bids with the hope of beginning construction in early January.
Also on Friday, the commission considered a second appeal by three Laguna Beach residents who opposed the city’s plan to demolish an existing medical building along South Coast Highway to become part of a new site for the South Laguna fire station. The existing Fire Station 4 is now in a 1940s-era building on nearby 2nd Avenue.
In May, the city’s Planning Commission approved the teardown of the building to make way for the new 9,250-square-foot station. The project also includes widening driveways, sidewalk and parking lot improvements, new landscaping, an emergency generator and two new public restrooms.
The residents, Ann Christoph and Tod and Jamie Henrichsen, who filed the appeal to the commission, oppose the demolition of the building and say the project doesn’t conform to the coastal development permit and will obstruct views and not fit in with the neighboring community.
But the Coastal Commission’s staff didn’t find any substantial issues, and the commissioners agreed.
Rounaghi said he is pleased with the commission’s conclusion, adding that the new station will be the first in 55 years to be built in the town that lies in a very high fire severity zone.
“It will replace a nearly 80-year-old seismically unsafe building,” he added, “ensuring our firefighters can respond quickly and effectively during the next wildfire or major earthquake.”