It’s time to move city yard...

It’s time to move city yard to ACT V

Kudos to the City Council for reviving the plan to remove the city

corporation yard from the Village Entrance site of the Civic Arts

District. It’s about time!

As chairman of the 1996 Corporation Yard Subcommittee of the

Village Entrance Task Force, we conducted a detailed study of the

existing yard and cataloged alternate sites for a new facility.

Our conclusions were definitive and straightforward:

1) The yard must be moved in order to create the opportunity for a

viable, well-designed Village Entrance project.

2) Alternate corporation yard sites that would meet functional

requirements were limited, with the ACT V site having the most

opportunities and the fewest constraints.

3) The city should sell the North Laguna auxiliary nursery site

and allocate the considerable funds that would be generated toward

new yard construction.

These recommendations were at first embraced by the City Council

to the point that preliminary work at ACT V was completed in order to

prepare the site for new yard. About the same time, the Planning

Commission and the council created the Civic Arts District and

authorized a design competition to provide for enhancing the area.

Implicit in the implementation of the Civic Arts District concept was

the corporate yard relocation.

Then, at the 11th hour, for no practical reason that I could

discern, the council retreated from authorizing the next phase of

work, despite having spent large sums of money to reach that

conclusive stage.

Now we have design competition concepts with the corporation yard

albatross unavoidably shoehorned into the Village Entrance site

plans. Ironically, the yard’s retention at the Village Entrance would

create one of the conditions that opponents of its relocation are

apparently concerned about: parking and infrastructure dominating the

area at the expense of civic amenities.

Looking at the big picture, the larger goal of the Village

Entrance project and the Civic Arts District is to improve the entire

Downtown environment as a pedestrian-friendly place that remains

viable and vibrant for local merchants as well.

The removal of the corporation yard is the fundamentally necessary

first step to reach that goal. Its relocation at ACT V will preserve

opportunities for outlying peripheral parking, as well as sufficient

close-in parking that does not overwhelm Downtown character.

I urge the council to stay its new course and move quickly to

relocate the corporation yard. Failing to do so would mean that our

citizens and merchants would continue to suffer the morass of

traffic, constraints to commerce and constrained quality of downtown

community life that we have endured with loud complaint for way too

long.

GREG VAIL

Laguna Beach

Confusing corporation yard photo explained

As lovely as it was to be pictured on the cover of today’s

Coastline Pilot with council member Elizabeth Pearson and architect

Morris Skenderian, your paper failed entirely to identify why we were

there!

So, allow me to take this opportunity to explain: the three of us

were among more than two dozen community members of the 1996 Laguna

Beach Village Entrance Task Force appointed by the City Council to

investigate options for the piece of land next to City Hall and

across the street from the Festival of Arts and Laguna Playhouse

presently referred to as the corporate yard -- the city’s equipment

maintenance and storage facility.

The old sanitation tower shown behind us in the above-mentioned

photograph occupies a portion of the yard and, to the best of my

knowledge, has been unoccupied, unused and in disrepair for many

years. It has also come to symbolize the deteriorating eyesore of

rusting corrugated metal buildings and stacks of material that the

yard has become over the years.

This Village Entrance Task Force unanimously agreed this site must

be beautified and made more functional by creating an inviting

park-like setting and providing expanded parking where it is needed

most.After a year of intense study and animated meetings, the task

force concluded that the majority of yard functions not only could

but should be moved off site.

After much research, it was determined that the only site capable

of housing such functions was the ACT V parking lot. ACT V would

continue to serve overflow parking needs during the summer, and there

would be a significant overall net gain of parking spaces with the

new Village Entrance. This would also enable the city to consider

contracting out some yard functions, with a possible savings in

operating expenses.

With its eyes to the future, the task force also gave a nod to the

past, recommending that the sanitation building should, if at all

possible, be preserved as a historic structure and made functional

within the new Village Entrance. The long-overdue, recently concluded

design competition was extremely beneficial in helping to envision

what this property can become, and since it was always understood

that the designs were conceptual, the newly revived plan to move the

yard to ACT V will in no way render moot these imaginative plans for

the entrance. A communitywide dream that was shelved by the city --

at least twice in the past 20 years following similar planning

processes -- finally has the potential to be realized. That’s why

Elizabeth, Morris and I were on the front page of the Coastline

Pilot, and it’s important to bring that to the attention of your

readers.

RICHARD STEIN

Laguna Beach

Moving yard to ACT V would be mistake

I continue to oppose the moving of the city corporation yard to

ACT V and will maintain this position until being shown that better

uses of the space can’t be made.

The most important thing is the total area is not being used. My

vision is that a parking structure would span the flood control

channel and would start at the hillside behind. The Festivals and

Playhouse would be accessible from the front of the structure and

there might even be the pedestrian bridge over Canyon Road.

The StudioOneEleven recommendation most closely resembles my

concept and the corporate yard uses would be under the parking

structure, as suggested in that plan.

At least the round existing tower would be retained, renovated and

could become an information center.

Other considerations are the devastation that would occur with the

moving of the corporate yard there, the addition of traffic on Canyon

Road and the wasted time city employees would be paid to go back and

forth and the use of more gas getting to ACT V. If anything has to be

done out there, it should be more landscaping.

ANDY WING

Laguna Beach

* The Coastline Pilot is eager to run your letters. If your

letter does not appear it may be due to space restrictions and will

likely appear next week.