Coastal Enclave Clings to Artistic Character : Laguna Beach: Residents find it’s worth price of commuting to live in Mediterranean charm.

When Sharon and Stan Todd decided that, one way or another, they would find a home in Laguna Beach they had a concern and an obstacle.

The concern was that his job as a vice president with F. T. Capital Calif. Inc. in Santa Monica would mean a commute of up to two hours one way to work. The obstacle was that homes in Laguna were not what you would call affordable. But they overcame both.

“We had looked at property throughout Los Angeles and Orange counties,” said Sharon Todd, “but we kept coming back asking our realtor to find us something here.

“Stan had stayed with a friend in Laguna Beach while I remained in Dallas with our two sons to complete the sale of (our) home there. Stan is an artist, and he fell in love with the town.”

The 1,500-square-foot home they bought last August, in the low $400,000s, had once been owned by the director of the Laguna Art Museum. This fascinated Stan Todd, and they also liked the home.

“People who lived in the neighborhood were painters or in other ways involved in the art market,” he said. “Now, after a long commute home, I enjoy chatting with my neighbors, who try to influence me to paint more frequently. My way of relaxing is painting or being around the ocean.”

Sharon Todd has a half hour drive to work in Newport Beach, where she is an assistant vice president at Security Pacific Bank.

This community of 23,170 residents has been attracting artists, tourists and residents since the mid 1800s.

The city, incorporated in 1927, is situated on Pacific Coast Highway about four miles south of Newport Beach and shares a border with Dana Point on the south. The eastern border of Laguna Beach is made up of Aliso/Wood Canyons Regional Park. The Pacific Ocean provides the western boundary. A finger of incorporated land running along Laguna Canyon Road connects another chunk of the city that is inland. The road provides access to the Santa Ana (5) Freeway and the San Diego (405) Freeway.

This canyon road was traveled even before 1871 when George M. Thurston brought his family to California and moved into an abandoned shack at the mouth of Aliso Canyon, filing a claim on 152 acres. The Thurston family owned the lower part of Aliso Canyon for more than 50 years.

By 1880 the ocean front from Laguna Canyon to Three Arches was in the hands of half a dozen individuals. The free land still available for homesteading was rough and covered with brush and could not be cultivated.

During this period, stores were established, a hotel was built, post offices came and went.

Settlers from Riverside and others from Santa Ana came regularly for their summer vacation. It was the hardier souls who took up permanent residence--and, of course, the artists. By 1918 there were enough permanent members of the art colony to support the first exhibition in the Laguna Beach Art Gallery.

In 1932 a series of events that gained national recognition took form and continue today. The Festival of Arts had been suggested by John Hinchman as a way to stimulate art sales during the Depression years. The following year the Pageant of the Masters was staged wherein living models pose to recreate famous art masterpieces.

Suspended only during World War II, the combined events have attracted visitors from all over the world and it’s estimated that 250,000 come to Laguna Beach each year to enjoy these activities, as well as the Art-a-Fair and Sawdust Festivals which were established in the mid-’60s as “splinter festivals.”

The Festival of Arts and Pageant of the Masters are held from July 10 to Sept. 1, and the Sawdust Festival--celebrating its 25th anniversary this year--and the Art-a-Fair run from July 7 to Aug. 30. Their visitors bring to the city revenue in excess of $5 million each year.

There are other attractions that Laguna Beach offers, and tourism is not limited to the summer months. The mild weather, the beaches, the restaurants, the shopping in the village and plenty of fine hotels and recreational facilities add up to a popular vacation spot, and folks who reside in Laguna Beach are aware that there is often a lot of traffic along Pacific Coast Highway.

Sue and John Davidson were well aware of the many attractions as well as the traffic in Laguna Beach when they moved into their five-year-old house of about 2,500 square feet in May of 1990. For a purchase price in the mid-$600,000s they acquired “a gorgeous ocean view, a canyon view, and it’s still less than a mile to walk to the beach or to town,” said Sue Davidson.

The couple had lived in Mission Viejo for 14 years, but often visited Laguna Beach (a drive of about eight miles) to attend the art festivals as well as enjoy the ocean and shopping and numerous good restaurants.

The Davidsons, who both work in Irvine, he with Grubb & Ellis in commercial real estate, and she as owner of Davidson Personnel Agency, enjoy the small-town atmosphere.

“Everybody knows everybody. And we don’t even notice the tourist activity. We thought for sure it would bother us, but it doesn’t,” Sue Davidson said.

Realtor Les Jenison, one of the owners of Laguna Pacific Realty, said that tourist traffic and congestion is the No. 1 concern of people considering moving to the town.

“I point out that I can get them on any day they chose from one end of town to the other in no longer than 10 minutes. When you live here you know where not to go. The area where Pacific Coast Highway and Laguna Canyon Road come together is where the action is. There are certain times when you don’t want to go to the market if you have to go through the downtown area on a summer day, or on a weekend.”

In today’s market, the average sales price for a home is $675,000, Jenison said.

The most expensive home on the market was recently reduced from $22 million to $12.9 million. The 18,000-square-foot home has nine bedrooms and 11 baths. High on a bluff, it includes a pool, six-car garage, guest house and security shack, and comes fully furnished.

For that average price of $675,000 a buyer can expect a home of about 2,000 to 2,500 square feet with a nice ocean view.

“You don’t have anything typical in Laguna Beach,” Jenison said. He pointed out that there are numerous houses available in the $300,000 and $400,000 range.

“People are also surprised to find they can buy a property in the low $200,000s.” He explained that these are single-family homes of about 1,280 square feet and up in the inland section of the city situated back in the canyon. This incorporated area is connected to the beach area by a 1 1/2-mile corridor of land that runs along Laguna Canyon Road.

Realtor Patty Truman of Grubb & Ellis quoted some home prices in Laguna Beach including a two-bedroom, two-bath older home with charm for $475,750, and a two-bedroom, two-bath with lots of trees for $450,000.

Truman said there are a few condominiums available. “We have some older units with no view for about $150,000,” she said. “They’re small, but they are Laguna. Others are available in the $200,000s up to $400,000.”

Joe Andrus lives in an own-your-own apartment that he and his now deceased wife, Edna Mae, purchased in 1974 for $68,000 after selling the family home they had lived in since 1949. “I came to Laguna Beach in 1933 after missing the boat that was going to the gold fields in Alaska. I got a job as a dishwasher.” Andrus said the population was about 4,000 at the time and it was “primitive.”

They purchased property in 1937, and built a home which they later sold. In 1949 they paid $25,000 for a four-bedroom three-bath home with a garage suited to operating the plumbing business he had established.

Greg Abel has seen property prices increase over the years in Laguna Beach. “My family has been here since 1938. There’s not another town like it along the coast. It has a real Italian-Mediterranean feeling.”

He and his wife, Kathleen, have owned two homes. The first was a three-room guest house they bought for $30,000 in 1970. They later added 900 square feet. The second house they purchased, in 1985 for a considerably higher price, was 1,700 square feet and they increased the size by 2,500 square feet.

As an architect and contractor in Laguna Beach, he is accustomed to dealing with the city and understands that there are concerns regarding matters such as view preservation.

“I know it’s important to protect the views,” said Abel, “but it ruffles my feathers when they try to design a house when somebody has paid money for a home and is then not allowed to develop it to its full potential. I know it’s important to protect the views, and it is justified in some respects.”

“The Board of Adjustment/Design Review Board is in charge of interpreting land-use policies of the city,” said City Councilman Robert Gentry, “View preservation is a primary concern. Homes were being constructed that were interrupting views of established homes.”

He said they were also concerned with homes being constructed that were out of character with individual neighborhoods. A recent controversy over the color of paint used on one home received a lot of attention in the press, but Gentry felt it was somewhat overblown.

Gentry, who is an openly gay person himself, commented that he estimates the gay percentage of the population to be between 15% and 30%. “There’s no way of accurately knowing.”

He said that the relationship between the gay and non gay in the community is excellent. “This is one of the most heterogeneous communities I have ever known where people get along so well.”

Sgt. Don Barney of the Laguna Beach Police said that the crime rate is quite low in the city. “As a beach community we are subject to the crimes and problems of most beach communities. Problems like traffic congestion during the warm days. We have some beach transients with problems that go with street people.

“We have some burglary, theft, narcotics violations. But statistic wise our crime rate compared to other cities is quite low. We’re a safe city.” He said their gang unit monitors any influx of gang members or activities, and they have a strict policy with graffiti. “When it goes up we take it down.”

At a Glance

Population

1990 estimate: 20,960

1980-90 change: +17.1%

Median age: 38.7 years

Annual income

Per capita: 28,608

Median household: 40,951

Household distribution

Less than $15,000: 15.3%

$15,000 - $30,000: 20.6%

$30,000 - $50,000: 23.4%

$50,000 - $100,000: 27.8%

$100,000 +: 12.9%