Council approves Shack changes

Barbara Diamond

Despite objections from residential neighbors, plans to redevelop the

venerable Pottery Shack moved forward Tuesday, with the proviso that

the project would be put on the city’s Historical Register.

“I better be able to recognize the Pottery Shack when you are done

or I am gonna come after you,” Mayor Cheryl Kinsman told developer

Joe Hanauer. “I love the Pottery Shack.”

The City Council voted 3 to 2 to approve a conditional-use permit,

a 55% reduction in parking requirements and division of the parcel

into separate shops, a restaurant and outdoor displays. The parcel

will be put on the register, with strict guidelines of preservation.

“When I was a kid, my mother brought me there,” Kinsman said. “I

had no money, so we went into the room where the seconds were sold,

and I could buy a salt shaker shaped like a bird, but with a broken

wing. Now it’s come to whether the Pottery Shack will live or die,

and I have to vote on it.”

Councilmen Steve Dicterow and Wayne Baglin opposed the approval.

“We are looking at historical preservation versus neighborhood

quality of life,” Baglin said. “I would view this differently if it

were already on the register -- if the owner said, ‘This is valuable,

and I will accept the restrictions,’ not the other way around.

“I am sickened by the abuse of the this ordinance.”

The impact of increased traffic on neighbors’ street parking is

the crux of the objections by the newly formed Flatlanders Assn. of

residential neighbors.

“I am stunned by the staff conclusion about [project] parking

having an insignificant impact,” Baglin said.

Architect and neighborhood property owner Dave Frith, who

supported the project, did not approve of Baglin’s questions and

comments to city planner Ann Larson, who prepared the staff report.

“His attempts to nail her to the wall were, I think,

disrespectful,” Frith said.

Neighbors’ complaints resonated with council members Dicterow and

Elizabeth Pearson, both North Laguna residents, whose homes are

within a couple of blocks of North Coast Highway.

“We need to address neighborhood parking,” Pearson said. “The

problem is rampant throughout the city.”

The city’s preservation ordinance allows considerable leeway in

parking, lot coverage and setback requirements on structures on the

Historical Register.

“There are 300 to 400 employees [of businesses] in a six-block

radius of the Pottery Shack,” neighbor Darrilyn Girvin said. “Adding

another 40 just compounds the problem.”

The City Council went with the commission recommendation of a use

permit and a 55% reduction in parking. The commission tacked on 48

conditions, some of them suggested by the Heritage Committee. The

council squeezed in an additional requirement for a mini-museum of

the history and perhaps examples of early Laguna Beach pottery, which

has become valuable and highly collectible.

Hanauer agreed to the “baby museum” proposed by Councilwoman Toni

Iseman. Iseman also wrenched an agreement from Hanauer that no mass

presentation will be allowed in the complex.

Exterior design was not included in the discussion Tuesday. That

comes before the Design Review Board, but Heritage Committee members

have made it clear they want to retain as much of the original look

as possible.

“After the beach and the Pageant of the Masters, the Pottery Shack

is probably the first thing that comes to tourists’ minds,” Village

Laguna representative Barbara Metzger said Tuesday.

She urged inclusion of the sale of pottery on the site, even if on

a limited basis.

“[Hanauer’s] offer was the only one I had that keeps the spirit of

the Pottery Shack alive,” said Susan Welton, the owner until Monday,

when escrow closed on the sale to Hanauer. “All the issues raised in

the [conditional-use permit] are the way I used the building -- there

is no intensification of use. It is the way Roy Childs did it and the

way Pier One did it.

“As for what will be sold, lots of other things besides pottery

were sold there.”

The structures have undergone changes in the past. The dark green

paint is fairly recent. The board and batten cottages that make up

the complex were formerly wood, weathered by time and climate.

What is commonly called the Pottery Shack was established in 1936,

one of several large pottery factories that flourished in Laguna

Beach during the war years.

The remnants of board and batten cottages and parking lot sit on

15 separate lots, bisected by an alley that runs parallel to South

Coast Highway and Glenneyre Street. Its southern boundary is Brooks

Street.

* BARBARA DIAMOND is a reporter for the Laguna Beach Coastline

Pilot. She may be reached at (949) 494-4321.