Reporter’s notebook: Parking structure, Village Entrance come up at forum

Candidates for the Laguna Beach City Council tackled questions involving the Village Entrance Project, pedestrian safety, parking and ways to better communicate with the California Coastal Commission during the first public forum of the election season Monday night.

I was asked to be part of a three-person media panel tasked with asking each of the seven candidates questions during the two-hour event, which was organized by Village Laguna, a nonprofit dedicated to protecting the city’s character. Former Village Laguna Vice President John Monahan served as moderator.

Incumbents Toni Iseman and Kelly Boyd and challengers Robert Zur Schmiede, Jon Madison, Eli Grossman, Michele Hall and Paul Merritt are vying for one of three open seats on the five-member council. The election is Nov. 4.

The discussion made clear that a parking structure may not be dead in Laguna Beach after all.

Iseman, who has served 16 straight years on the council, suggested a raised deck at the Act V lot in Laguna Canyon as a way to move cars out of congested downtown streets.

“We have to keep as many cars out of downtown as possible,” Iseman said, adding in a follow-up phone interview Tuesday that the idea of a second level at Act V has surfaced before.

In the summer, tourists park at Act V and take the trolley into town.

Hall and other candidates expressed interest in a parking structure at Act V. Hall, a yoga instructor and former president of the Laguna Beach Republicans, said the structure could serve a dual purpose.

“I favor a skate park, which could go on top of the parking structure,” said Hall, a mother of two youths ages 16 and 18. “Kids could take a trolley out there.”

Farther south along Laguna Canyon Road is the entrance to the village. The number of ideas posed through the decades-long effort to come up with a beautification plan for the intersection with Forest Avenue could fill pages.

On Tuesday, the city will unveil key points gleaned from a July public workshop on the Village Entrance Project, including a desire to have a landscaped pedestrian promenade near the site of the current Forest Avenue/Laguna Canyon Road parking lot.

Last November the council voted not to include a parking structure as part of the project, resulting in a sizable cost savings.

Merritt, who graduated from Laguna Beach High and is a former Laguna Niguel city councilman, suggested teaming with other cities to tackle the problems of congestion and parking.

“We need a balanced [Village Entrance] project so we don’t detract from depth of Laguna,” Merritt said. “Why don’t we have a lot at the Great Park [in Irvine],” where travelers could board a shuttle into Laguna.

Madison, owner of Madison Square & Garden Cafe and chairman of the city’s Heritage Committee, offered specific tips on possible signage at the Village Entrance.

“A pedestrian bridge over Laguna Canyon Road near Laguna College of Art + Design could say, ‘Welcome to Laguna,’ and on the other side, ‘Thank you and get out,’” Madison said, drawing laughs from the audience. “The most important thing is moving people through the city. We can build 50 parking structures, and we wouldn’t have enough parking.”

Providing safe walking and bicycling routes is also paramount in the city. Several candidates voiced support for all crosswalks in town to have warning lights.

Boyd, a fourth-generation Lagunan who is seeking his third consecutive council term, said he recently met with three cyclists, including Coastline Pilot columnist Billy Fried, to discuss possible bike routes throughout town. But that’s not all on his agenda.

“We need to work on the sidewalks in Laguna Beach, build new ones,” Boyd said.

Council hopefuls also weighed in on improving communication with the California Coastal Commission.

Zur Schmiede, a planning commissioner who has spent 36 years in urban planning and development, suggested monthly meetings to update Coastal Commission staff on pending projects, such as the appeal in June of a renovation at a hotel in Aliso Canyon called the Ranch at Laguna Beach (formerly Aliso Creek Inn & Golf Course).

“That way they are not blindsided when a project comes in,” Zur Schmiede said, adding that more frequent meetings could speed up what can be a laborious and time-sucking approval process.

In a letter to the Coastline Pilot earlier this month, Zur Schmiede said city procedures should be changed so that all appeals must go to the council and not bypass local elected officials.

Iseman, who served as a coastal commissioner from 2003 to 2005, offered insight into how the agency operates.

“There is a big difference between coastal staff and commissioners,” Iseman said. “The elected commissioners have a better idea of what is going on in cities. I can tell you today’s commission is a reasonable group, and the quicker we can get to them, the quicker we can get issues resolved.”

Grossman said he is “concerned about character, ethics and morals of current city leaders.”

The evening ran smoothly; candidates were civil, not interrupting one another while sticking to the questions asked.