MAILBAG - Nov. 30, 2007

A plateful of thanks for dinner in the park

On behalf of the more than 400 people who enjoyed the annual Thanksgiving potluck in Bluebird Park last week, a heaping plateful of thanks to the dozens of volunteers who showed up to help us make the meal happen.

As usual, many of these volunteers come from surrounding communities stay to share the meal with us and leave before we can say thanks. And to the dozens of people who brought or dropped off the turkeys, pies, drinks and all the trimmings, we can only say: They were delicious!

And a special thanks to the workers from the city, especially Ron Lutz in the office and John O’Hara and Rick Weiers on the ground in Bluebird Park, who help out so much every year. As we have said for more than 20 years, the Thanksgiving potluck in the park reflects the true Laguna spirit.

DAVID PECK

MARY LARUSSO

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Nighttime restrictions won’t hurt businesses

The Coastline gets it wrong again. Last week’s editorial regarding the proposed Residential Overnight Parking Restriction Pilot Program misstated information that the Coastline should have gotten right considering it has covered this issue from day one and have been present at the many meetings between residents and city representatives.

For more than three years now, residents in the midtown areas have asked the city to implement a pilot parking-restriction plan to relieve our neighborhoods from late-night noise and disruption caused by those that come to Laguna to party. The problem is clear, the solutions are difficult, but this will provide some relief to residents while having the least amount of impact on local businesses.

The proposed limited pilot program will take effect after the majority of businesses are closed for the day. The parking study commissioned by the city showed that there is ample parking available later in the evening for both business patrons and employees, it is just not being used. The boundaries have been discussed and have been selected to make sure the “push” the Coastline mentions will not happen, people simply won’t park beyond a certain distance and with available parking closer to these establishments they will choose to park in those areas.

Those folks enjoying nightclubs and restaurants late at night will not have to pay for street parking, as the Coastline states, because those metered street-parking spaces require payment only until 7 p.m. and are free after that as we all know. The Coastline conveniently fails to point out in its editorial that this is a nighttime restriction only and implies that it will impact all businesses, which is not the case.

Could this somehow be related to the advertising the Coastline receives from some of these LATE NIGHT businesses? One thing has become clear throughout this process, when people have all the facts and understand the program they support it.

In the Woods Cove area we were able to meet with and speak to 143 households about the proposed program and of those 138 signed petitions in favor of the program. If the Coastline is going to write editorials about important issues facing our city, it should get the facts right and stop spreading misinformation.

Laguna Beach

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Vote on parking should be bifurcated

If the residents and (perhaps) business operators of the South Village area do vote next spring regarding permits and/or parking restrictions, it might be smarter for the city to divide the referendum into two separate districts.

The distinction is strikingly evident: The so-called Village Flatlanders Neighborhood Assn. zone begins at Thalia Street, terminates at Calliope Street. The Woods Cove Neighborhood Assn. zone begins at Bluebird Canyon Drive and terminates around Diamond or Moss Streets.

While the Flatlanders domain along Glenneyre Street is and has been mixed commerce and residential for many decades; plus, adjacent to a historically dense business district along South Coast Highway, the Woods Cove area has zero commerce along Glenneyre and a great deal fewer businesses on South Coast Highway.

So with two different inter-active dynamics, it seems obvious that if the city formally polls stakeholders, for a minor amount of time/money there should be two voting districts. Then too the Flatlanders never achieved consensus, never reflected broad-based support from their own turf as the Woods Cove association has accomplished so well.

As one of the co-founders of the Village Flatlanders Neighborhood Assn. (I resigned several years ago when I moved) and a professional environmental consultant, I was the person who pushed for the pilot/demo project involving the bagging [covering] of meters along Glenneyre, South Coast Highway and perpendicular side-streets adjacent to both. Though some denigrated this as an “experiment,” such projects are really Polaroid shots, widely used to ascertain impacts without permanent, expensive alterations. Using Occam’s Razor, I felt that a simple recalibration measure might be the best place to start.

I never claimed that it was the ultimate solution, the sole silver bullet to remedy all things for all parties in dispute or conflict. With the city issuing intensified Conditional Use Permits without realistic parking mitigations, it seemed that a reconfiguration combined with a study might lead to a better, more thorough database for modeling future planning uses citywide as well. A more realistic assessment over the course of seasonal variations could be invaluable for our staff, Planning Commission and City Council.

As a 35-year resident who spent 18 of them in this combat zone, I firmly believe that the Woods Cove Neighborhood Assn. will only be hampered in its mission by its sister NGO, fettered by being clumped together with what is really a very different world, inhabited by different critters!

ROGER E. BUTOW

Laguna Beach