Verde Laguna: A spectacular new view to enjoy in Laguna
On Nov. 15, just days before our city manager is going to retire after 30 years of service, Mayor Pro Tem Toni Iseman celebrated the opening of the newest park in town at Arch Heights, saying that the City Council wanted to dedicate it to Ken Frank. But since he established a policy not to name anything with the name of a living person, with a smile on her face, Toni said that at least for the next 40 years it’s going to be called “Arch Beach Heights View Park.”
The park, with an entrance at the intersection of Quivera and Cortez, is a small intervention that has made this piece of land a lot more attractive. Iseman referred to Frank’s vision to acquire many of these 2,500-square-foot lots over the years, and finally developed this park. The $450,000 project, including everything from design to construction, was designed by Larry Steinle and built by Green Horizon Landscape Company.
At the opening ceremony, Frank explained that due to budget limitations a stairway projected to connect the new trail with Baja (lowest part of Arch Beach Heights) had been excluded from the current construction, but is going to be part of a future effort.
After the ribbon-cutting ceremony, many of the residents walked down the stairs to the lower trail and neighbors have been enjoying the space ever since. I observed people during the day using the park in ways they hadn’t quite imagined.
It is true that this a small public park in a city with a lot of green and the ocean, but there’s always a hunger for this kind of amenity. Located at the creek, exactly at the heart of Arch Beach Heights, the park opens the space that has been underused.
The park offers a high quality outdoor space, developed with an environmentally friendly approach to landscaping, using groups of water-wise plants that are appropriate to the site conditions, no turf or grass, and a low-water budget required due to the use of water-wise specimens that are going to thrive and do well on our climate conditions. Mulch has been installed to enhance soil biodiversity and nutrient cycling, and watering is by a drip irrigation system that I predict can be reduced or eliminated after plant establishment.
An exciting addition to this project, at least to the people living nearby, is the inclusion of a 100-foot fuel modification zone in which fire-resistant succulents have been planted. The only critique goes to the proliferation of handrails on both sides of the stairs, which, with the purpose of providing accessibility for a person with special needs, I think may be better served as a continuous handrail only on one side.
Indeed, this new park reflects the city’s commitment to open space. As I experienced the first sunset at the park, nothing can substitute the experience of walking down the steps, sitting on a bench facing west, feeling the quiet passion of living the moment, relating to the landscape, and knowing how easy it is to miss this deep feeling in our everyday life. This is why I urge everyone to actually enjoy it.
You can become an artist just bringing “whatever colors you have in mind, I’ll show you them to you” — words I borrowed from Dylan’s “Nashville Skyline,” that continue with, “and you’ll see them shine.”
GUSTAVO GRAD is a Laguna Beach resident and certified sustainable building advisor. He can be reached at [email protected].