Laguna Beach decides to preserve its historic sewer digester building

Laguna Beach’s historic sewer digester building is getting a new life.

Sort of.

The City Council on Tuesday voted unanimously to preserve the 1930s-era building on the corner of Forest Avenue and Laguna Canyon Road, drawing cheers and applause from audience members.

The building will be weatherproofed in addition to having its exterior — including the decorative stairs and upper deck —refurbished to allow for its continued use by the Police Department for storage of evidence.

“This sort of evolved the way we anticipated it would evolve when we started in September, which was to ... see if there’s anybody who wants to propose something, and I think this has evolved to a good place,” Mayor Bob Whalen said.

The sewer digester is a remaining structure of Laguna Beach’s old wastewater treatment plant. The deteriorating building is a K-rated structure on the city’s historic register. The designation indicates that it retains its original integrity and demonstrates a particular architectural style or time period.

Whalen said he wanted to start with the option that included the weatherproofing and external refurbishing because he expected the project’s estimated cost — $930,000 — will go higher.

Current funding estimates for the preservation effort combine $101,000 already allocated in the city’s Village Entrance project budget with a $200,000 contribution by residents Greg and Barbara MacGillivray and $629,000 allocated from the city parking fund.

The council awarded a $175,000 bid to Patriot Environmental Services, a Los Angeles-based environmental contractor, to remove sludge from the building and appropriated an additional $15,000 in case the amount of sludge that needs to be disposed of is greater than expected.

City staff said Tuesday that the building currently has no plumbing.

The vote follows action taken in September, when the council voted to begin the process for an economic analysis on the feasibility of renting out the building and start on an environmental impact report to determine what it might cost to demolish it.

Up for consideration Tuesday were three options by city staff — demolish the building and replace it with parking, preserve and weatherproof the building for use by the Police Department, or allow the MacGillivrays to renovate and repurpose the facility. The MacGillivrays wrote to the city in January, outlining their commitment to renovate the building, add a public restroom and enter a 99-year lease agreement with the city for its use.

Greg MacGillivray is a film director and producer and co-founder of MacGillivray Freeman Films, based in Laguna Beach.

“Barbara and I believe that it is a tragedy to demolish the digester historical building,” he wrote. “When I was a child, to me this was ‘Fort Laguna,’ with its spy tower on the hill above. I’d look forward to this fantasy each year when my family would take us to the [Pageant of the Masters].”

“Today, it is one of the few historical buildings that many of us (thousands) love and hope will carry on the feeling of our charming art community,” MacGillivray wrote. “Don’t you think it is worth saving?”

The MacGillivrays initially proposed a $500,000 contribution to help prevent destruction of the digester. They contended the demolition would cost the city $2 million. .

In a second letter to the city, dated Feb. 4, they outlined proposed use of the sewer digester, such as a small cafe and retail or gallery space. The letter also provided parking analyses, cost estimates and expected timelines.

City staff estimated the proposed repurposing would cost $3.3 million to $4.8 million, depending on the project.

The MacGillivrays offered to contribute $200,000 if the city chose only to preserve the sewer digester, which the City Council agreed to accept.

Dozens of residents spoke Tuesday in favor of preserving and/or restoring the building. Some raised concerns about spending public funds on restoration, while others questioned the figures presented on some of the options.

Mayor Pro Tem Steve Dicterow said he would not vote for any option that involved demolition. He said the facility is one of the few buildings in Laguna Beach that are remnants of a New Deal agency that employed workers to carry out public works projects.

Councilwoman Toni Iseman reiterated previous requests to turn the sewer digester into a public restroom.

Councilman Peter Blake suggested an option be added to allow the sludge removal and weatherproofing and using the funds provided by the MacGillivrays to improve the exterior.

“I think we start with [preservation] and see where we get to,” Whalen said. “I don’t think bathrooms are necessary, and if there is a repurpose of this building, I don’t think that’s a good repurpose. So [if] people want to be really creative ... and come up with a great repurposing of the building, maybe we’ll hear that down the road at some point.”

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