Council appoints familiar faces to board

Andrew Edwards

The membership of the Design Review Board will not change for 2004,

as the City Council on Tuesday reappointed incumbents to all three

slots on the board that could have gone to new members.

Returning to the board are Suzanne Morrison, Eve Plumb and David

Michel.

Michel, who served as an alternate in 2003, will serve in that

capacity this year.

“I think the incumbents deserve to be appointed just because

they’ve paid heavy dues,” Councilwoman Elizabeth Pearson said.

Board members frequently face the difficult duty of reaching

compromises between property owners who want to pursue new

developments and those who prefer the status quo.

Four challengers had vied for spots on the board, and Mayor Cheryl

Kinsman encouraged them to apply for future openings on other city

bodies in the future.

Those hoping to gain seats on the board were property manager

Brian Flynn, architect Rachel Hoffman, architect Leslie Le Bon, and

realtor Valerie Wallace.

Councilman Steve Dicterow called the seven applicants “the most

qualified group I’ve ever seen apply.”

Candidates gave brief statements to the council outlining their

qualifications and describing what they hoped to accomplish on the

board before the council’s vote.

Michel, a property manager, said he had needed a year on the board

to understand issues such as view equity and neighborhood

compatibility.

“I would just really appreciate the opportunity to run with the

knowledge I have this year,” he said.

Hoffman, one of the challengers, is a relative newcomer to Laguna,

having moved to the city from New York one year ago. She said she and

her husband “fell in love” with Laguna while looking for a home in

Southern California.

She said she wanted to serve on the board to help find a balance

between the economic imperatives of new development and the

“preservation of the soul of the place.”

Morrison, a designer who has spent more than two years on the

board, said she was “thrilled to keep doing what I’m doing.”

Local architect Horst Noppenberger said the board does well in

its efforts to find a balance between preserving existing areas and

approving new buildings, though in his view board members had been

too conservative about new projects.

Councilman Wayne Baglin also praised the board, citing figures

that property values in Laguna have risen 128% during the past five

years.

“This Design Review Board gets a whole lot of credit for that,” he

said.

The reinstated members are slated to begin in February. Morrison

and Plumb were selected to serve terms ending in 2006, while, Michel,

the alternate, was selected to serve for one year.