OTHER TOP NEWS STORIES OF 2006

2. Four cottages saved

A last-ditch effort by opponents of the proposed community/senior center on Third Street failed to muster support from the City Council.

Mayor Toni Iseman and council members Elizabeth Pearson-Schneider and Kelly Boyd unanimously approved plans that had been revised since they all pledged support for the center during the election campaign.

The decision was left to the trio because Councilwoman Jane Egly was out of town and state law barred Councilwoman Cheryl Kinsman from voting because she owns property within 500 feet of the project.

Opposition to the project was voiced by opponents who did not like the site, the design or both. Some opponents opposed the destruction of the cottage neighborhood to make way for the center.

The project is 17,900 square feet smaller than the 36,894 square feet originally proposed.

Thirteen speakers supported the project.

“I was president of the Laguna Beach Seniors six years ago when we came before the council because we were the only South County seniors who did not have a place of our town,” Louise Buckley said. “I think we [seniors] are also a heritage, and we need to have a home.”

Cost of the project is projected to be $15.7 million, which includes design changes recommended by the Planning Commission, funding to move and temporarily store four of the Third Street cottages and pursuit of a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Silver rating.

All of the cottages on the site must be moved or demolished before the groundbreaking, tentatively set for April.

— Barbara Diamond

3. The elections

Voters were faced with a slew of elections in 2006, after the appointment of Rep. Chris Cox to head the Securities and Exchange Commission the previous year, and the election of then-state Senator John Campbell to fill the remaining term of the 45th District seat.

Special elections were held June 6 to fill the 45th Congressional and 35th State Senate districts, with primaries on April 10. With so many seats up for grabs, many contenders threw their hats in the ring.

Not surprisingly, Campbell coasted back to Washington, while Tom Harman, termed out in the Assembly, was sent back to Sacramento to sit on the senate side of the state legislature.

Another race was needed to replace termed-out County Supervisor Tom Wilson.

Duking it out and breaking spending records for the supervisor’s chair were Cathryn DeYoung and Pat Bates, who together spent some $5 million on the race, which Bates won handily in November.

In Laguna Beach, two incumbents and one late-bloomer were elected to the City Council in November and sworn into office Dec. 5 in an election that was a shocker to many.

The abrupt decision of three-term veteran Councilman Steven Dicterow not to file, after taking the mayor’s chair earlier in the year and announcing his candidacy, stunned the electorate.

Homegrown tavern owner Kelly Boyd was returned to the dais after a 24-year hiatus, coming in third in the race for three open seats on the council. Incumbents Toni Iseman and Elizabeth Pearson-Schneider came in first and second.

Pearson-Schneider opined that the one-two finish in the election reflected voter approval of the results achieved by the alliance the two women forged in the past four years, despite political differences.

“I think people like the fact that council members with opposing views have been able to work together and get things done,” Pearson-Schneider said.

Former City Clerk Verna Rollinger came in last in the field of four, a crushing defeat for the veteran city official, who had won seven consecutive races for the clerk’s post.”This is the first election I have ever lost,” Rollinger said. “It’s not as much fun as winning.”

Rollinger was the first to announce her candidacy and ran what many considered a model campaign. Her war chest was second only to Pearson-Schneider’s.

Boyd said support from the city’s firefighters and his deep roots in the community — he is fourth-generation Lagunan — were the keys to his election. Although he entered the race late, his was the first name on the ballot, by random selection.

Pearson-Schneider said mailers by Laguna Beach Republicans and the Laguna Beach Taxpayers Assn. targeting registered Republicans were instrumental in electing her and Boyd.

Iseman and Rollinger were endorsed by Village Laguna.

— Barbara Diamond

4. Bluebird Canyon

The reconstruction of a Bluebird Canyon hillside, begun almost immediately after the June 1, 2005 landslide, is nearing completion — if all goes as planned, by early spring.

Costs for the completed restoration were estimated in September to be $20.5 million. The good news is that the costs are covered.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s intervention on behalf of the city’s quest for Federal Emergency Management Agency funding was applauded by city officials. FEMA, which had previously ruled out federal grants for the repairs, announced in November 2005 that it would authorize substantial funding for the city.

“The news was definitely a relief,” City Manager Ken Frank said.

Between the FEMA grant and approval of reimbursement by the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services, the city will have less than $2 million to cover if the estimates hold up. Revenue from the temporary half-cent sales increase approved last winter by the voters will cover the gap.

Public money will be used only to restore public infrastructure and to seed a permanent disaster fund, perhaps ahead of the tax’s six-year sunset. The council can reduce the life of the tax but cannot extend it.

Councilwoman Elizabeth Pearson-Schneider would like to see the tax ended sooner rather than later, which is why she voted against tapping the revenue for a preemptive strike proposed Nov. 21 against another possible disaster in the canyon.

The council voted 4-1 to spend $225,000 to stabilize the area east of Oriole Drive and south of Flamingo Road, sited between the 1978 and 2005 landslides in the canyon.

“This is a perfect opportunity to correct the final instability in that area,” Landslide Recovery Coordinator Bob Burnham said.

The property owners in the project area and the city will share the costs of the repair, the city’s $125,000 portion to be funded by the Measure A sales tax, subject to council consideration of recommendations from the Measure A Oversight Committee, which will meet in January.

— Barbara Diamond

5. Crystal Cove

Two major events occurred in 2006 at Crystal Cove State Park. The 30-year-old battle by owners of beachfront vacation homes to remain on state park land ended when longtime residents finally packed up and left in February, leaving many memories behind. Their exit was marred by vandalism, as some of the oceanfront mobile homes were trashed. State park officials negotiated a $60,000 payment in June to compensate for the destruction of some of the homes.

Under an agreement, residents were permitted to abandon their trailers, instead of paying to remove them, if they left them free of trash. The state planned to salvage the abandoned trailers and use proceeds to fund work on the site.

By August, most of the trailers had been removed, paving the way for public use of the site.

Nearby, renovation of about a dozen of the historic Crystal Cove Cottages was completed, and the quaint, beachfront cottages were put up for rent to vacationers in April.

The cozy, affordable cottages proved extremely popular to vacationers.

The first day that rentals were available, the state park’s online reservation system was overwhelmed with requests, and reservations were filled through October. By the end of June, the cottages were reported to be booked through December.

— Cindy Frazier

6. Aliso Creek

An estimated $45 million will be poured into Aliso Creek to clean the water, keep it clean and restore the riparian habitat — if the funding isn’t dammed up in Washington, D.C.

Congressman John Campbell’s proposal for funding a major cleanup of Aliso Creek has passed the House of Representatives, but not the Senate.

Council members Elizabeth Pearson-Schneider and Toni Iseman lobbied intensively for Campbell’s support for the cleanup project in a visit this spring to Washington, D.C., after he was elected to fill the seat in the House of Representatives vacated by Christopher Cox (R-CA).

Aliso Creek meanders for 11 miles from the Saddleback foothills to South Laguna, picking up pollution all along the watershed and spewing it onto the sand at Aliso Beach.

The “SUPER” project — named for the goals of creek Stabilization, Utility Protection and Environmental Restoration — is an updated and coalesced version of several years of studies and proposals that languished on county shelves for lack of funding.

Local, county and federal elected officials and a representative of the Army Corps of Engineers held a press conference in August to announce the revitalized proposal.

The first phase of the proposal includes the construction of a series of low structures in the creek and the reconnection of it to the natural flood plan. Creek sides will be shaved to reduce the steepness of the slopes, and invasive species of plants will be removed and replaced with native vegetation. Infrastructure protection will include locking the low flow channel in place with rock at the toe, with soil wraps above the rock.

Diversion of the low flows of Aliso Creek at the South Orange County Water Agency treatment plant to make the water salable for irrigation is also a goal.

Environmentalists at the press conference were not pleased.

“This is a pig in a poke,” South Laguna resident Betsy Bredeau said. “I think it is a flood control project to benefit one private property owner, using tax dollars.”

She was referring to the Aliso Creek Golf Course, which has suffered in the past from flooding, now owned by developer partner Athens Group and Montage Resort & Spa.

“I don’t believe their support for the project is with expectations of flood control,” said Larry McKenney, manager of the county’s Resources and Development Management Department. County officials are hopeful that the support of Campbell and Congressman Ken Calvert (R-CA), who also attended the press conference, will produce about 75% of the funding by the Army Corps of Engineers, leaving the county to come up with about $11.25 million in nonfederal funding.

That county’s share was cut almost in half in November when the state approved a $4.622 million grant from Proposition 50 money for the project. A $1 million state Department of Water Resources grant further reduced the local amount needed to qualify for federal funding, which is based on 75/25 percent cost-sharing formula.

The corps has hitherto been prohibited from directly addressing the pressing problem of bacteria in the creek because pollution issues are under the jurisdiction of the Environmental Protection Agency.

The SUPER Project could be the proving ground for a new agreement with EPA that would allow the corps to be directly involved in the resolution of water-quality programs, a corps spokesman said. Congressional approval of the project would permit the corps to pay for water-quality treatment to ensure that creek water is clean before it flows onto Aliso Beach.

— Barbara Diamond

7. Hospital saved

Adventist Health officials’ decision not to sell South Coast Medical Center ended two years of angst for city officials and hospital staff.

The staff was the first to learn in July that Adventist’s directors had abruptly terminated negotiations with a prospective out-of-state buyer and would continue to operate the hospital on a not-for-profit basis.

“This is excellent news for the people of Laguna and nearby coastal communities,” said City Councilwoman Cheryl Kinsman, who vowed to keep the hospital in Laguna.

Adventist had begun to peddle the center after attempts to move the facility out of town were abandoned in mid-2005.

DSI Holding Co. Inc. in Tennessee was the only known suitor. Company officials said progress was being made in negotiations just hours before the Adventist board determined the terms of the sale were not advantageous.

“We look forward to working with Adventist Health to keep existing medical services and to expand them to further meet community needs,” said Assistant City Manager John Pietig.

Pietig and council members Kinsman and Jane Egly served on a joint city/hospital task force created to ensure the hospital stayed in town, regardless of who owned it.

Adventist, which bought the medical center in the late 1990s, put it on the market in the summer of 2005. Hospital administrator Gary Irish said then that the cost of seismic retro-fitting the facility at an estimated cost of $70 million and the need to attract more patients had prompted the decision to sell after an attempt to relocate was abandoned.

The hospital costs about $72 million a year to run, according to Irish, who was subsequently replaced by Bruce Christian.

“Adventist Health is committed to the continued operations of SCMC,” said Robert G. Carmen, Adventist chief operating officer and board chair for the medical center. “We know that the hospital is an important part of the Laguna Beach community.”

Efficient operations, new services and alternatives to comply with the state Seismic Safety Act will be pursued, according to Carmen.

— Barbara Diamond

8. Road reopened

Laguna Canyon Road was transformed from a winding country lane with a tragic history into a wider, safer highway.

City and county officials celebrated the completion of the project in October. Then-Fifth District Supervisor Tom Wilson wielded the ceremonial scissors at the ribbon cutting, only a couple of months before he termed out of office.

The road improvement was one of his priorities.

“We just made it under the wire,” Wilson said.

The project realigned 3.9 miles of the highway from the toll road to I-4-5 and added another lane in each direction — north- and south-bound lanes to be separated by landscaping.

Also added: on-road bike lanes, an improved entrance to Nix Nature Center in the Laguna Coast Wilderness Park, water-quality basins and bridges at key points over the road, which was moved from between the two natural lakes in the Laguna Canyon to eliminate flooding.

The project was more than 10 years in the making and involved the cooperation of county, state and local government agencies, landowners and the environmental community in the earliest stages.

“It was almost 14 years ago to the day that we started the Consensus Committee,” Laguna Greenbelt Inc. President Elisabeth Brown said.

Separating the lines to reduce traffic accidents and moving the road out from between the two lakes to eliminate flooding were two of the committee’s priorities.

What it took:

Still to be done:

Twenty-nine thousand vehicles are expected to use the realigned roadway daily.

— Barbara Diamond

9. Mansionization

“Mansionization” became a buzzword with the construction of larger homes and other major projects, especially on hillsides requiring lots of grading.

During the council election campaign, mansionization was the one topic brought up at all the council forums, and activists vowed to seek an absolute limit on the size of new homes.

Efforts by community members to stop construction of a 17,000-square-foot residence on a 12-acre parcel on Mar Vista failed after the developer took his case to court and succeeded in making city officials back down on a proposed revocation of permits. When the California Coastal Commission tried to issue a stay on the project, the developer again took the case to court and obtained a ruling allowing the project to go forward.

Meanwhile, building began on a four-unit residential project on Ceanothus Drive, in the hills of South Laguna. Rock-breakers shattered the ears and nerves of neighbors, and city officials stepped in to try to ease the noise and dust issues.

Plans by St. Catherine of Siena School to build a larger campus generated more opposition by activists, who succeeded in convincing the Coastal Commission to hear a future appeal of the project, already stymied by the discovery of a threatened bird on the site and other issues. City officials warned that the Commission’s action could open the door for appeals of future development for thousands of parcels in Laguna Beach.

That led St. Catherine’s officials to file a lawsuit against the Coastal Commission with the help of the Pacific Legal Foundation, a property-rights group.

— Cindy Frazier

10. Bar reprieved

Gay activists were delighted in August, when the new owner of the Boom Boom Room, a landmark gay bar, agreed to lease the site to the operators for another year.

Steven Udvar-Hazy, who purchased the bar and the Coast Inn motel, along with other properties in the “gay” section of Laguna Beach, agreed to the lease just before it was to expire in September.

Local activist Fred Karger led a well-publicized “Save the Boom” campaign, bringing in former mayor Bob Gentry — known as one of the first openly gay mayors in the United States.

The Boom’s star-studded clientele in the past included Rock Hudson, and rumors circulated earlier in the year that Brad Pitt and George Clooney were buying the bar, but were denied by all the parties.

The rumors delighted Gentry, who commented, “I love it; I just love it. Laguna Beach has a history of stardom, and this is really natural to have those kinds of rumors surface.”

— Cindy Frazier