Laguna Planning Commission gets two new members

The Laguna Beach City Council appointed two new Planning Commission members last week.

The five-member council selected Susan Whitin and Roger McErlane from among eight applicants at its April 21 meeting.

Whitin received the most votes — three — while the council needed to go through two more rounds of voting before selecting McErlane from a group that included former Commissioner Becky Jones and current Commissioner Norm Grossman, whose term expires June 30.

Whitin, a landscape architect and urban designer who started her own firm in Laguna in 1996, began immediately to fill the spot vacated by Linda Dietrich on April 1. McErlane, a landscape designer and urban planner who founded his consulting firm in 1992, will begin July 1.

Both Whitin and McErlane served on the city’s View Equity Committee, which drafted an ordinance approved by the council last year that gives residents a way to reclaim views lost to overgrown trees and other vegetation. McErlane has served on the city’s Design Review Board for the past three years.

“[McErlane’s] background in planning is one of the big things that’s very important,” Councilman Kelly Boyd said in referring to ongoing projects such as the Downtown Specific Plan and Laguna Canyon Road improvements. Boyd voted for Whitin and McErlane.

“Both Susan and Roger’s backgrounds and resumes are excellent for the Planning Commission,” Boyd said.

Whitin has lived in the city for 34 years and prepared the landscape plan for the blufftop park and hotel grounds at the Montage Laguna Beach. She has led planning projects for cities, universities and hospitals and organized community workshops with the city of Del Mar and the Anaheim Redevelopment Agency.

Whitin said serving on the View Equity Committee was a turning point for her.

“The view committee provided a firsthand look at the public process, and it furthered my enthusiasm for ongoing public service,” Whitin said during the council meeting.

She earned a master’s degree in landscape architecture from the University of Michigan.

McErlane has more than 35 years of experience designing residential communities and resorts, including 13 years as senior vice president of community planning for the Irvine Co. He was a planning consultant for Disneyland Paris and earned a master’s degree in landscape architecture from the Harvard Graduate School of Design.

McErlane said he was encouraged to apply for the post.

“It wasn’t on my bucket list, but given all the planning studies underway, the position was of interest to me,” he said.

Whitin and McErlane will serve through June 30, 2017.