As another busy summer looms, Laguna Beach braces for the impacts of tourists
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Laguna Beach is gearing up early in preparation for an anticipated surge in visitors after traffic, trash and other impacts resulted in a summer of discontent for residents last year.
City officials addressed the public at a town hall meeting Thursday evening, the City Council chambers filled with residents interested in hearing — and contributing to — the new plan of action.
“I think we started our messaging last year a little too late,” City Manager Dave Kiff said at the outset of the meeting. “... As a result, we were probably not as prepared as we would have liked to have been for the visitors last year.”
Kiff acknowledged limitations to the city’s ability to lessen the impacts. He noted that parking rates — while increased periodically — cannot “charge what the market will bear” because of controls in place by ordinance and the Coastal Commission. Beach access is also protected by the Coastal Act and the city’s local coastal program.
“We rely on visitors — hotel bed tax, parking revenue, sales taxes to serve the residents,” Kiff said. “I wish that were different, but it is a big chunk of our money. It’s not a majority, but it is a significant chunk of our revenues that we use to operate the city.”
From a traffic perspective, city officials are hopeful that an earlier start for the Summer Breeze trolley route will pay dividends. Trolleys will begin busing in people from a free peripheral parking lot at 16355 Laguna Canyon Road near the 405 Freeway on May 23, Kiff said.
Kiff also suggested that the messaging from Visit Laguna Beach needed to take a different approach. John Zegowitz, who is assisting the organization with a rebrand and awareness campaign, spoke to a plan to connect tourists to the local lifestyle.
Zegowitz said the mission will include “leading guests” to engage with the area in a way that is aligned with and respectful of the local community and the environment.
Community input is being sought, including through a resident survey on tourism impacts currently being circulated on the city website.
Zegowitz shared some of the comments fielded so far, saying, “Obviously, residents are feeling that their world and quality of life is compromised, right, overrun by those who just don’t care. Visitors tend to lack understanding or respect for the community’s values, leading to trash, traffic, noise, tensions and damage to already challenged environmental resources.”
The lodging establishments, who pay a self-assessment to help fund tourism-related initiatives through the tourism marketing district, recognize the environment and culture of Laguna Beach are their “greatest amenity,” Zegowitz said.
“They want to be part of protecting it, and they want to make sure that it remains that beautiful amenity of theirs,” Zegowitz said. “Curating and educating the right kind of visitor to raise the quality and experience for guests and the community alike by inspiring protection of what makes Laguna unique, that is something that we’re really going to focus on, as well. The opportunity is to connect a different mindset by better representing Laguna as an environmentally- and creatively-driven place. If we can keep pulling those things forward, we’re pulling our culture forward.”
Laguna Beach police officers made 284 arrests for driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs last year, Police Chief Jeff Calvert said. In January, the police department began notifying businesses when a DUI arrest could be connected to the alcohol-serving establishment.
“Part of the DUI arrest, the officers ask, ‘Where did you last drink?’” Calvert said. “We have taken that information, and we’re actually sending a notification letter to the business. The owners don’t know what they don’t know. Well, now they know. We’re telling them the date and time of arrest, and also, the blood-alcohol level of the person that was arrested.”
The 284 DUI arrests represent a 21% increase from 2023, said Calvert, who added that 238 of the arrestees were visitors. Of the notifications sent out following those arrests, 61 of the 83 letters were delivered to local businesses.
Other vehicle-related figures included over 22,000 parking tickets, close to 1,700 speeding infractions, and 340 loud exhaust citations.
Additional quality-of-life matters saw the department write 649 citations for drinking in public, 236 for dogs off a leash, 200 for smoking in public.
Laguna Beach will have nine park rangers in the field to deal with quality-of-life issues this summer, Calvert said. The city operated with seven park rangers last year. The program began in 2022.
Calvert expects to have a total of five motor officers — including a traffic sergeant — within four to six months.
City messaging will strike a different chord than that of Visit Laguna Beach, Kiff said, describing it as “more enforcement-oriented.”
“Heavier on the don’t and no’s,” Kiff said. “There’ll still be some stewardship messaging, but we’ll continue to start publicizing numbers of folks who get ticketed. … I think people need to know it’s happening, but you’ll see this, especially on social media.”
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