A new city treasure

Barbara Diamond

San Francisco has Golden Gate Park. New York has Central Park. London

has Hyde Park. Orange County will have the Great Park. Now, Laguna

Beach has Treasure Island Park ... and it is a treasure.

“The first thing we are going to do with out-of-town visitors is

bring them here and show them what we have,” Mayor Toni Iseman said

at the park dedication on Saturday morning. “We are so lucky.”

The dedication was attended by present and former council members,

city officials, project supporters and just folks -- for whom the

park was built. The crowd was estimated at between 1,000 and 2,000

people.

For many, it was their first view of the spectacular site, closed

to the public while a mobile home park. The construction fence, which

obscured the project from passing motorists or pedestrians, was

removed at about 7 a.m. Saturday.

“I have never been able to come in the front door until now,” said

Bill Blackburn, who grew up in Laguna.

Former Mayor Neil Fitzpatrick used to confide that he got in the

back door by clambering over the rocks at low tide.

“I’d never been here,” Arts Commissioner Pat Kollenda said.

Resident Pat Crosby and Bob Miranda were scoping out the park long

before the mayor, developer Kim Richards and resort owner Alan

Fuerstman cut the red ribbon, which officially opened the park to the

public.

“It is even more beautiful in the daytime than at night,” said

Planning Commissioner Norm Grossman, who had attended the lavish,

invitation-only reception held the night before to celebrate the

opening of the Montage resort.

The path the public strolled for the first time Saturday stretches

more than 2,000 feet along the 4.5-acre bluff top park on the

spectacular oceanfront side of the resort.

Below the path, slope and beaches add another 7.4 acres, with

three access points, one of which is a combination of ramp and stairs

that complies with the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Tide pools near Goff Island, named for an early Laguna settler,

are among the most pristine on the South County coast -- if they are

not the most. The city hopes to preserve them with the help of the

public. No taking, please.

The ocean in its myriad colors and moods can be comfortably viewed

from 61 benches.

“So many people worked so long and so hard for this, and here it

is, probably the most beautiful park in Southern California,” said

former Planning Commissioner Greg Vail, who chaired the joint Design

Review Board and Planning Commission meetings on the project.

Should nature pale, visitors can take a gander at public art

valued at more than $700,000 installed in the park and on the resort

grounds.

The city’s Art in Public Places Ordinance requires developers to

contribute art valued at 1% of the estimated value of the project or

donate an amount equal to 1% to an in-lieu fund. The city, as owner

of the park, was also obliged to acquire public art. The developer

fronted some of the city’s costs for art. It will be repaid, as will

the city’s $900,000 park-construction costs, from bed taxes.

Park art includes local sculptor Cheryl Ekstrom’s “Parallel

Dance”; Linda Brunker’s 10-foot tall statue of a woman, titled

“Voyager”; and Gerard Basil Stripling’s bronze seating arrangement.

The architecture of the hotel and the private residences on the

approximately 30-acre site is derived from the Arts and Crafts

Movement. Competing artists were advised to keep their submittals in

keeping with that aesthetic.

“You can’t put stainless steel on that site,” Arts Commissioner

Jan Sattler said.

Subdued pathway lighting is also true to the period. Even the

trash containers and water fountains aren’t plain vanilla.

Other amenities include outdoor showers, nine picnic tables and

two sets of public restrooms -- one under the resort spa and one near

the 39-space parking structure. The planted rooftop on the parking

structure adds another layer to the park. There are also 31 public

parking spaces along the highway.

A landscape easement and a succulent garden near the highway are

part of the park.

Ancient jade trees that were displaced by remodeling on Greg and

Lynn Vail’s South Laguna home were donated to the resort’s succulent

garden. One hundred thirty trees that were dug up and boxed during

hotel construction have been replanted on the resort grounds.

“The park is gorgeous, even more spacious than Heisler Park, up at

my end of town,” Bette Anderson said.

A deliberate absence of heavily canopied trees, which could block

views, adds to the open feel of the park.

However, finding shade will be a problem for sun-sensitive

visitors. Visitors would be smart to wear hats. Women with parasols

would be charming.

There is still work to be done, City Manager Kenneth Frank said.

Planting had not been completed when the park opened Saturday.

Rock walls at the south end were constructed Friday.

“It’s amazing what has been done in the last couple of days,”

Frank said.

Parks, like yards, are works in progress. Some plants in the

city’s newest park have already died and will be replaced. Others

will malinger, perhaps unhappy with their location. Every gardener

has danced to that tune.

Maintenance and liability are the responsibility of the resort

owner.

Community Development Department Assistant Director John

Montgomery figures the park is about 97% completed.

“John should have been part of the ribbon cutting,” resort

architectural consultant Morris Skendarian said. “He did more work

than anyone.”

He is still at it. A sheltered bus stop will be built this week on

the highway in front of the resort, Montgomery said. A visually

obtrusive fire hydrant, painted bright white, will be removed from a

lawn.

“It has been a long and winding road, with many ups and downs,”

said developer Kim Richards, chief operating officer of Athens Group.

“Even with the downs, we found ways to make it work.

“I want to reiterate how lucky the city is to have a council that

had the vision and stubbornness to go through with this,” she said.

The proposal to convert Treasure Island Mobile Home Park into a

resort sparked a bitterly contested referendum on the council’s

approval of the project. Voters supported the council 55% to 45%, but

the opposition led to some changes in the proposal, including a

bigger park.

“As is often the case in Laguna Beach, the process provides an

opportunity for those who have concerns and those who oppose a

project to participate in achieving a better project,” City Clerk

Verna Rollinger said.