Barbara DiamondThe City Council has rejected a...

Barbara Diamond

The City Council has rejected a construction staging area on a

city-owned parcel at Big Bend, for which a skateboard park is being

planned.

City Manager Ken Frank was ordered at the Nov. 4 council meeting

to expedite a list of suitable uses, excluding a staging area, for

the 2.5-acre parcel, along one of the most dangerous stretches of

road in Laguna Beach, in an area known to be unstable and prone to

floods. The vote was unanimous to exclude a staging area on the

parcel, although the council had approved $75,000 in 2003-04 budget

for that purpose.

“My guess is we just missed it when we reviewed the budget,”

Councilman Steve Dicterow said. “I don’t think this is a change of

policy. We intended it to be for light use, nothing intrusive.”

Director of Public Works Steve May reported at the April meeting

that multiple construction projects underway in the city involve

large pieces of equipment and materials, which require storage. He

proposed hiring a consultant for a preliminary plan for a staging

area at Big Bend.

The budget item in the capital improvement program included a

description of the proposed project, which would have taken up

three-quarters of an acre already developed when the city bought the

property. The project also was discussed at a council meeting in

April, from which Dicterow was absent, and reintroduced at the Nov. 4

meeting.

“We were proposing to construct the staging area where three small

houses were on the site when we bought it in 1998 from the post

office,” Frank said.

Funding for the $350,000 purchase came from the city’s Open Space

Fund, as did another $75,000 to clear up the site.

“It was not pristine when we bought it,” Frank said.

The Park-in-Lieu Fund put up $25,000 to study the site for a

soccer field, an idea later rejected.

“I support recreational uses there -- recognizing it is in the

flood plain and subject to slides,” Councilman Wayne Baglin said.

“It was never my intention to spend $450,000 out of the Open Space

Fund for a trash dump. I think the city staff has been illegally

using the site for the past year as a staging area.”

No private party complaints about the use were filed with the city

code enforcement department.

“I did receive a referral from the Planning Commission,” code

enforcement officer Louis Kirk said. “I understand the use has been

discontinued. I will be checking after the first of the year.”

The council’s vote on Nov. 4 negated staff recommendations that a

preliminary design contract be awarded for the staging area and a

application be filed for a conditional use permit.

Environmental watchdog and contractor Roger von Butow said the use

of the site as a staging area is a “violation in progress.”

“But it needs to be part of an overall strategic plan for the

entire canyon that would include ACT V and the Laguna Canyon Creek

restoration,” von Butow said. “It could even be the site of an

underground retention basin.”

However, water is a significant problem on the site for planners.

At least part, if not all of the parcel in the flood plain.

“Any project in the flood plain has to be safe and not add to

flooding,” Frank said.

The council decided at the March 18 meeting to switch the

skateboard park to Big Bend from its previously approved location at

the Bark Park, to which it had been moved from ACT V. The council’s

decision was not based on a recommendation by the Recreations

Committee.

“Big Bend is a ridiculous location for a skateboard park,”

committee member Sita Helms said. “It puts the kids in danger -- they

should not be on the 133 -- and it’s too far out.”

The council approved in September the appropriation of $15,000 for

the YMCA to use for topographical maps, landscape plans, drainage and

biological studies and a soils report of the site for a proposed

skateboard park. Two previous $10,000 appropriations were used for

initial planning and development, traffic, preliminary design and

market studies.

YMCA architect Marshall Ininns said a traffic study has been

completed. A hydrology study is under way. And the YMCA is

negotiating with Little League about a possible joint project. The

project might even include some tennis courts, Ininns said.

“I suggested the Y contact Little League,” said Councilwoman

Cheryl Kinsman, a mother of two. “I have seen Marshall’s plans, which

include a Little League diamond, a 48,000-square-foot skateboard park

and 34 parking spaces. Kids would have to get there in cars.”

Kinsman said she has not excluded a staging area from the mix,

even though she voted to eliminate it from the list of possible uses.

“I want to see a complete site analysis before I exclude any

particular use,” Kinsman said. “I don’t think the whole thing has to

be developed at one time, but it should be planned.”

Laguna Canyon Conservancy President Carolyn Wood said piecemeal

planning for the site is contrary to state law on development

procedures. She said it is critical to analyze cumulative effects

early on to determine if an environmental impact report is required

under the California Environmental Quality Act.

Some environmentalists think the less planned for the site, the

better.

“It’s a terrible place to dump stuff,” said Ed Fry, vice president

of Village Laguna. “It s a natural deer crossing. Let’s save that

piece of property. It was bought with open space funds.”

There is no legal restriction on the use of the city’s Open Space

Fund, Frank said. However, if the council was uncomfortable using the

fund purposes inimical to open space preservation, the money could be

repaid out of the general fund.

“I would be willing to repay the Open Space Fund only if it was

clear to everyone in town that the site was to be used for a staging

area,” Dicterow said. “I am far more sensitive to public opinion now

than I was before my recent experience” (a proposal to increase the

limit on campaign donations was overwhelmingly unsupported).

Dicterow said his vote to exclude the staging area was equally

influenced by the fund used to buy the parcel and by his opposition

to permanent structures on the site.

The council voted 4 to 0, with Councilman Dicterow absent, to

continue the hearing to allow city staff time to meet with YMCA

officials to see if and how the two project could co-exist. Exclusion

of the staging area was not proposed.

No date was set at the Nov. 4 meeting for the staff analysis on

possible uses and development requirements for the Big Bend parcel.