2016 in review: Hellos, goodbyes, legal entanglements and charges of bias are among Laguna Beach’s top stories
Laguna Beach in 2016 saw renovations completed and begun, a brouhaha over an outdoor dining area, familiar faces returning to the City Council and lawsuits. The city also bid farewell to a beloved seafood restaurant on Glenneyre Street. Here is a look back at some of the significant events of the year in chronological order.
New schools chief
Laguna Beach Unified School District trustees in March unanimously approved the hiring of Jason Viloria as the district’s next superintendent.
Trustees touted Viloria’s leadership philosophy and emphasis on expanding student opportunities, such as encouraging more students to take Advanced Placement and honors courses.
Viloria, former associate superintendent of administrative services for the San Dieguito Union High School District in San Diego County and principal of Woodbridge High in Irvine, replaced Sherine Smith, who retired after six years as Laguna Beach Unified’s schools chief.
Cafe Zoolu says goodbye after two decades
After 24 years as owners of Cafe Zoolu, Michael and Toni Leech served their last meals at the famed seafood restaurant in May.
Michael Leech said years of running the restaurant, housed in a 1939 cottage at 860 Glenneyre St., had taken a physical toll and it was time to retire.
Michael Byrne, co-owner of the The Saloon, a Laguna Beach bar, said he wanted to open a Creole-themed restaurant in the space. Byrne did not return a call seeking an update earlier this month.
New turf and track at Laguna Beach High
Crews spent the summer installing new surfaces on Guyer Field and the surrounding track at Laguna Beach High School while adding drains and an LED scoreboard as part of a long-awaited $2.3-million project.
The field’s surface now incorporates a type of infill that holds moisture longer, keeping the turf relatively cooler under direct sunlight. Workers also added end-zone lettering and wider white sideline boundaries.
Crews added a rubber layer to the track to ease the pounding that runners’ legs take.
Muslim women allege discrimination by Urth Caffé
Seven women filed a civil rights lawsuit in May against Urth Caffé claiming they had been discriminated against a month earlier because they were wearing hijabs, traditional headscarves worn by some Muslim women.
The cafe’s owner denied the allegation and filed a countersuit accusing the women of trespassing at the North Coast Highway property by refusing to leave.
The women said they were ushered out of Urth Caffé by two police officers after a manager said they had violated the restaurant’s policy of allowing only a 45-minute stay during peak times. The women claim there were several open tables around them.
An Urth attorney said the women became rude and disruptive by videotaping patrons after learning about the cafe’s policy of limiting stays during peak business times.
Sara Farsakh, 29, far left, stands with three other plaintiffs and one of their lawyers. The women sued Urth Caffe in Laguna Beach for discrimination, alleging they were targeted in April for being “ visibly Muslim.”
Controversy envelops Alessa’s parklet experiment
The city’s experiment with an outdoor dining area in front of Alessa Laguna Beach, an Italian restaurant at 234 Forest Ave., lasted a tumultuous 60 days.
The area, called a parklet, generated backlash from the start of construction in May. Some residents claimed the space was exclusionary, benefiting restaurant patrons only and not the general public, while taking away parking spaces.
Parklets are areas off sidewalks that may offer seating, plants, bicycle parking and other features. They are seen as community gathering spaces that encourage walking over vehicle use.
Chef Alessandro Pirozzi spent more than $30,000 designing and constructing the parklet. He was the only one of a handful of business owners to accept the city’s request for volunteers to test the concept.
Festival of Arts renovation moves ahead
Demolition started in October on a portion of the Festival of Arts grounds, at 650 Laguna Canyon Road, home to an annual summer fine-art show.
The project will include terraced exhibit spaces, updated restrooms, wider pathways and other upgrades. The renovation is the first significant work done at the site since the 1960s.
Festival of Arts board President Fred Sattler reported in November that revenue from the 2016 show was $9.72 million, exceeding the 2015 total by 6.5%. Festival officials expect the renovation to be finished by the time the 2017 show opens July 5.
Police crack down during Art Walk
Art gallery owners for years had served complimentary wine and beer to visitors browsing collections during First Thursdays Art Walk every month. But on Nov. 3, undercover officers from the Laguna Beach Police Department and the state’s Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control cited seven business owners for serving alcohol without a license.
Some owners said they were caught off guard.
Police said they had some issues with amplified music, drinking in public, intoxicated people and displays creeping onto sidewalks.
The Orange County district attorney’s office later dismissed the charges in the “interest of justice,” according to a D.A.’s office staff member.
Familiar faces return to council and school district
Laguna Beach voters in November reelected Steve Dicterow and Bob Whalen to the five-member council from a field of four candidates that included Verna Rollinger and Judie Mancuso.
The election was not without controversy.
Dicterow answered questions about a 2014 personal bankruptcy, and after speakers claimed during an October council meeting that he withheld sources of income, also addressed a candidate filing form.
In the Laguna Beach Unified School District board race, incumbent Jan Vickers and challenger Peggy Wolff prevailed in a three-candidate field that included challenger Howard Hills. Vickers has served for 26 years on the five-member board.
Lawsuit follows revamped short-term lodging ordinance
The saga of Airbnb-style rentals took another turn in November when a group of residents sued the city and California Coastal Commission, alleging violations of land-use laws by prohibiting new short-term lodging permits in residential areas.
After more than a year of contentious debate, the City Council in August decided that property owners applying for permits to rent out space in homes or apartments could do so only in commercial zones.
The council had enacted a moratorium on new permits in May 2015 after some residents complained of loud parties, parking congestion and littered streets and sidewalks that they attributed to renters.
Lawsuit related to The Ranch
A panel of three state appellate judges in December affirmed Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Richard Fruin’s earlier decision that exonerated Laguna Beach in a lawsuit brought by a resident opposed to a hotel renovation project in Aliso Canyon.
Mark Fudge had sued the city and the California Coastal Commission in March 2015, claiming, among other arguments, that plans for The Ranch at Laguna Beach, at 31106 S. Coast Hwy., should have received greater scrutiny for possible harm to surrounding habitat.
Writing for the panel, Judge P.J. Willhite said Fudge did not file his suit within a required 35-day window.
But Fudge claimed, according to court documents, that the 35-day limit was rendered moot by his appeal to the Coastal Commission of the Laguna Planning Commission’s 2014 approval of the project.
Coastal commissioners had given their approval in January 2015 to Laguna Beach Golf & Bungalow Village LLC, the company that owns The Ranch, to increase the number of rooms, reconfigure a restaurant and add a spa and fitness center. Fruin has yet to rule on the portion of Fudge’s lawsuit against the Coastal Commission.
Artist work/live project gets a new hearing
A 30-unit artist work/live project proposed by business partners Louis Longi and Chris Dornin will be reheard by the California Coastal Commission.
In December, Orange County Superior Court Judge Kim Dunning ordered the commission to rehear the matter, basing her decision in large part on the fact that six of the 10 commissioners did not properly disclose private communications with developers during a January 2015 hearing. Legal experts say such ex-parte contacts threaten the fairness of the agency’s decision-making process.
At that 2015 hearing, commissioners approved plans for two two-story buildings on two lots in Laguna Canyon that would provide living and working space for artists.
A group of Laguna residents sued the commission in March 2015, claiming, among several allegations, that the facility’s location, size and scope would clash with the canyon’s small scale and rural feel.
Twitter: @AldertonBryce
