Take care with Shack parking

It’s clear that Laguna’s leaders want to do what’s best for the

city’s residents, but time after time issues come up that place

developers against residents and residents feel they can’t compete

with the insider’s game and the offers of increased taxes for the

city.

What developers of the Pottery Shack want shouldn’t be more

important than the needs of its neighbors.

This time the city made a great move. At Tuesday’s council

meeting, they voted to approve the Pottery Shack project, with plans

for the parking still to be negotiated. Residents don’t have much

issue with keeping businesses where there has been a business for a

long time. The issue has been adequate parking -- a parking situation

that wouldn’t bring down the whole neighborhood.

It’s not that developers are inherently the enemy -- they have

little to gain by upsetting the neighbors -- but there is a dance

that must be done between them and city leaders. If you come into

Laguna with a plan for change, you must be willing to negotiate and

help maintain the feel of the city.

Remember when Montage was being discussed and residents expressed

plenty of concern about the parking situation? They worried that the

proposed parking wouldn’t be sufficient for all the Montage employees

as well as visitors to Treasure Island Park.

It wasn’t long after the resort opened that the reality hit, and

it turned out there really were more people parking in the

residential areas, but there was no longer anything the city could do

about the Montage design.

There is still something the city can do about the Pottery Shack

parking situation. The Pottery Shack stands empty, and it will be

good to have it filled with merchants and a restaurant, but this

positive event for the city shouldn’t mean a major negative for those

who live on the neighboring streets.

Neighbors can go to the meetings all they want, they can complain

and the rest of us can find the situation upsetting or annoying, but

only the city’s leaders can do something about it. Only the city’s

leaders can ensure that a new business center won’t create a dark

cloud over the neighborhood.