Laguna Beach City Council approves economic recovery, business development plan with some reservations
With the first round of approvals for an economic recovery and business development plan geared at revitalizing Laguna Beach’s economy through, discussion on modifications to current business and parking regulations in the Downtown Specific Plan have been tabled to May 26.
On Tuesday, the City Council directed city staff to pursue grant funding and authorized the use of up to $250,000 of previously allocated funding for the Downtown Action Plan, to be spent broadly across all its recommendations.
The City Council also approved use of $25,000 of the funding to develop concept plans for a summer pilot program that involves the closure of lower Forest Avenue for outdoor dining and entertainment with Councilwoman Toni Iseman dissenting.
The program is part of the business regulatory relief package to provide a space where residents can eat and interact safely while allowing restaurants the space availability to operate at sustainable levels.
Orange County supervisors, and dozens of residents who turned out to lobby them this week, are increasingly itching to relax restrictions that were imposed in response to the coronavirus outbreak and reopen businesses and public spaces.
Other approved recommendations included seeking proposals to hire a consultant to aid in identification and recruitment of businesses to the downtown area, a parking structure study funded by the city and its chamber of commerce and development of opportunities for artists and organizations beyond existing programming in addition to providing funding to individual artists through “Fostering Creativity in a Time of Crisis.”
Also approved were the development and implementation of guidelines, in accordance with both county and state orders, to support businesses as employees return to work.
The recommendation tabled for the next City Council meeting on May 26 was postponed due to the late hour. The recommendation involved directing staff to return to the council on June 16 with modifications to the business and parking regulations proposed in the comprehensive update for the Downtown Specific Plan and recommendations from a retail market study on how to modify and streamline new business permitting practices.
Housing, building height and parcel merger components of the Downtown Specific Plan will be addressed separately.
The recommendations are all part of a larger economic recovery and business development plan created by a working group of city departments, Chamber of Commerce, Visit Laguna Beach, Festival of Arts and the Sawdust Festival in consultation with Councilwoman Sue Kempf.
Organizers of the summertime programs, which draw 225,000 spectators to Laguna Beach in July and August, say the decision to cancel the 86th show was difficult but necessary.
During an hour-and-a-half-long hearing, at least 30 residents spoke to both sides of the argument with some in general support of the plan while others questioned the validity of the working group, which was not appointed by the City Council.
Others asked why the city was considering spending money on a local business consultant to figure out how to market the city to new businesses instead of focusing on preserving businesses currently here, while other opponents pointed to longer-running issues such as high commercial rents and low parking density as causes for businesses shuttering in the city.
Residents also pointed to claims that the city would not be discussing items that were likely to draw large crowds. Iseman agreed, adding that she felt the working group should have been a regularly organized committee with public meetings.
“The public should have been allowed to go,” Iseman said. “I think if we were to vote and go forward on something this important, especially when I hear from merchants on Forest, who weren’t noticed because they’re not down there. We did exactly what we said we weren’t going to do. We weren’t going to take on big issues until the public could be there.”
Others asked why lower Forest Avenue specifically should be closed for outdoor dining and entertainment, when other restaurants in the city would be unable to access the same spaces because of their locations elsewhere.
Kempf said that restaurants on Forest Avenue didn’t have the space to operate while remaining compliant with social distancing requirements, adding that “if you want restaurants to survive, they need room.”
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“[Businesses] didn’t ask for that pandemic. None of us did. They’re struggling. How is it so bad that we close Forest Avenue for the summer? More people will come to Forest Avenue to sit, eat … than they will if we didn’t,” Kempf said. “Having a charming town includes having vibrant stores and restaurants to go to, not empty storefronts, which I agree ... these people are hurting.”
Mayor Pro Tem Steve Dicterow argued that “time is not on [their] side” and called for the council to act quickly, acknowledging that high rent costs were a problem but that “this isn’t the time to deal with that and, frankly, that is a market condition I don’t know the government should be involved in.”
“I think [the COVID-19 pandemic] is a crisis event. We need to take steps and we need to take them now. They will not be perfect. We will make mistakes. Trade-offs will occur,” Dicterow said. “I believe in capitalism, but ... the entire business world was forced to shut down because of the virus. It’s nobody’s fault, but certainly not the business’s fault to shut down.”
“We should not be in the business of picking winners and losers,” Dicterow added.
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