Laguna can’t afford move to ACT V

Toni Iseman

On Dec. 2, on a 3-2 vote, the Laguna Beach City Council authorized

the city manager to charge ahead on the $5 million move of our

maintenance yard, our nursery and vehicle storage to the ACT V

parking lot in Laguna Canyon.

This lot, where visitors pick up the summer shuttle, holds more

than 400 cars at the height of our summer season. When this 2-plus

acre facility is built, ACT V will drop from more than 400 to 106

parking places. (With a paid attendant, you can add 84 more cars

after 5 p.m. and on weekends when city employees take their cars from

the lot).

Last year the Corporate Yard move was going to cost $4 million.

This year the city manager says $5 million. The Treasure Island Park

at the Montage was first estimated by the city at $1.5 million. It

came in at just under $9 million.

The state budget crisis could well mean an annual budget reduction

of nearly $1 million because of the vehicle license fee reduction.

Plus funding the new retirement benefits to our police and

firefighters could mean another million.

When asked, the city manager acknowledged that he anticipated

lay-offs in future years due to revenue losses. Will it be

lifeguards, park maintenance, inspections, community development,

recreation, water quality? Where are the fiscal conservatives? We

should be saving money, like our neighboring communities, for our

uncertain future.

If we don’t address our congestion in the summer, we lose our

ability to enjoy our own town. For our quality of life, beach traffic

must be kept out of Downtown. Two years ago, three members of the

council agreed that a parking structure should be built behind Laguna

Playhouse to serve the festival and playhouse visitors.

An increase in close-in parking could be achieved if our city

manager would examine our current uses and clear some areas in the

summer months. And what about Gary Alstot’s suggestion to privatize

some uses? Moving the yard creates a net loss of parking. We owe it

to our festivals to have places to park visitors.

The corporate yard includes fuel tanks, painting, welding and

storage of toxic and flammable materials. Laguna Canyon Wilderness

Park surrounds this area on three sides. Would a spark from the yard

start the canyon on fire, or would a fire in the canyon ignite our

city yard?

Our current corporate yard has decayed over the years. The council

discovered at a public meeting that we were threatened by the state

with a sanction to repair our fuel tanks. The first two warnings from

the state were not shared with your elected officials. No one on the

council was aware of this. I guess the city manager thought we didn’t

need to know.We will spend more than $100,000 on this fix at the

current site and other repairs are in order. This is a less than

ideal working situation that needs to be addressed. However, we do

not have to eliminate more than 200 parking places or drastically

reduce the heart of the shuttle to make these improvements.

If you are concerned, go to Santa Ana and appeal to the Orange

County Board of Supervisors. Our hearing will be on Tuesday at an

uncertain time between 9:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. (Sorry if you want to

attend and happen to work.)

Why Santa Ana? In order to avoid local scrutiny, this area was not

annexed into our city limits. Why are we wasting the supervisors’

time listening to our problem? Do you think we would let a private

application bypass the Laguna Beach Planning Commission? This town

pays more attention to your 400-square-foot remodel than our

20,000-square-foot project.

Making room for the Village Entrance is the primary reason for the

corporate yard move. Will there be money after the move to ACT V?

Piecemeal planning is costly. We do not have the revenue to fix

costly mistakes. This is one of those things that you read about that

other towns doThe corporate yard move will haunt our town for decades

to come. We need the Village Entrance, a parking structure and

beautification of the area. We are not achieving these goals with

this move.

Creative solutions can be found to minimize the loss of space at

ACT V and to reduce the cost of the corporate yard renovation. Other

resort communities have recognized that the way to limit traffic

congestion is peripheral parking.

ACT V is being squandered. There has been no room for debate on

this project.

It’s political football and it’s a game we’ll all lose.

* TONI ISEMAN is a Laguna Beach Council Woman.