Parking permit extension OK’d

The Laguna Beach Planning Commission has tacked another year onto the temporary parking permit for Montage Resort & Spa employees.

Employees park across Coast Highway from the resort, using the old Unocal property, which the resort owns, and the adjacent strip, which it rents, hoping to buy it if the owners ever agree to sell.

The commission voted 3-1 for the extension to Feb. 1, 2007. Commissioner Robert Zur Schiede was absent.

Resort owners had requested a two-year extension.

Commissioner Norm Grossman voted against the extension, preferring to grant only another eight months.

A parking study is due in July for commission review.

“We want to see what’s being put where,” Commissioner Anne Johnson said. “One of our concerns is that both lots are full all the time.”

The commission also requested the resort submit a landscape plan with irrigation and maintenance within 30 days of the Feb. 22 meeting.