Laguna Beach officials highlight community services at State of the City event
Laguna Beach city officials are looking forward to continued progress on some priority projects, including expanded programming and enhanced public safety capabilities in South Laguna.
An update on the status of the Laguna Beach Community and Recreation Center was a topic of discussion at the State of the City luncheon at the Montage Laguna Beach on Tuesday.
Acquired from the Diocese of Orange for $23 million in December 2022, the 6.5-acre property, now home to the center, was formerly the St. Catherine of Siena school site. It has since morphed into a community-serving facility, equipped to handle a variety of art classes and athletic activities. The transformation has included the addition of temporary skate ramps.
“The acquisition of this property has afforded us the opportunity to respond more quickly to safety-related issues in South Laguna,” Mayor Sue Kempf said in a video played at the event. “We have added both police and marine safety substations to the facility, and soon we’ll have a fully equipped emergency operations center.”
Kempf’s video presentation also made reference to several statistics regarding city departments. Marine safety personnel executed more than 2,300 rescues in South Laguna last year. The city also kick-started a mobile mental health program with Be Well OC, averaging over 400 community contacts per month.
After an in-house ambulance service was started in 2022, the fire department reported an average emergency response time of seven minutes by its ambulances in 2023.
Laguna Local, a free on-demand transit service, had 63,000 boardings in its first year.
During her brief remarks following the video, Kempf said Laguna Beach continues to work toward filling the positions of city manager and community development director permanently. She called Assistant City Manager Gavin Curran, who is currently serving as acting city manager, the “natural choice” to lead the city in the interim.
Public Works Director Mark McAvoy was popular among a panel of city officials, as he was called upon to respond to questions about a number of projects in town. They included queries about the ever-present construction along Coast Highway and Laguna Canyon Road.
“The Caltrans project is wrapping up soon,” McAvoy said regarding the construction on Laguna Canyon Road. “That basically took care of the bottleneck as you head northbound, where you get to El Toro [Road], it goes to two [lanes], it necks down to one and back to two, which creates traffic issues. Caltrans is completing that gap closure there by widening it out.”
There is also a Southern California Edison utility undergrounding project in the area expected to begin in the next couple of months, McAvoy added.
As for the sidewalk improvement project along Coast Highway, McAvoy recognized the longevity of the work in town.
“I promise the answer is not never,” McAvoy prefaced his response to a question regarding the expected date of completion for the work. When finished, the city will have a continuous sidewalk from Ledroit Street to 5th Avenue.
The event on Tuesday, attended by a few hundred people, was put on by the Laguna Beach Chamber of Commerce. Paula Hornbuckle-Arnold, the organization’s board chair, shared some key dates.
The chamber’s annual golf tournament will take place on May 14 at Strawberry Farms Golf Club in Irvine. The Taste of Laguna food and music festival will be back on Oct. 3 at the Festival of Arts.
In an election year, the chamber will co-host a City Council candidates forum with the Laguna Board of Realtors and Voice of Laguna at City Hall on Oct. 23.
All the latest on Orange County from Orange County.
Get our free TimesOC newsletter.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Daily Pilot.
