Museum project stuns council

An ambitious new proposal unveiled Tuesday calls for the Laguna Art Museum to relocate from Coast Highway to a site at the Village Entrance now earmarked for a public parking structure.

The museum would be built under private housing to finance the move.

“The museum board of directors met [Monday] and unanimously voted to move forward with these plans,” former Councilman Paul Freeman, the museum’s point man for the proposal, told the City Council.

Freeman broadly outlined a proposal for the council and public that included a 450-seat, multi-use amphitheater for public use, the relocation of the museum and the construction of 34 townhouses on top of the 670-space city parking structure, to be financed by the sale of the residences.

“An informal group has been meeting for the last few months to discuss a comprehensive plan for the Civic Arts District,” Freeman said.

“The thrust of the alternative approach is to further beautify the Village Entrance and to accommodate the relocation of the museum ? with no cost to the taxpayers ? while still meeting established city goals in terms of net new parking and public park space.”

The Village Entrance, a component, if not the centerpiece, of the Civic Arts District, would stretch from City Hall around the corner on the south side of Broadway and Laguna Canyon Road, opposite the Laguna Playhouse and the Festival of Arts Grounds.

Development Department Director John Montgomery said at Tuesday’s council meeting that material changes to the already-approved project ? an urban park and parking structure ? could delay it and increase the cost of preparing the environmental impact report.

Freeman said that there is room for a more creative design and more creative financing.

Mayor Elizabeth Pearson-Schneider said: “I don’t want this [parking] project delayed, but I am open to hearing proposals. I am open to financing alternatives, but I don’t want to sell us out.”

Councilwoman Cheryl Kinsman questioned the amount of space available for parking, and called the project “mind boggling.”

Representatives of the Laguna College of Art & Design, the Playhouse, Seven Degrees, Laguna LP and the museum are participants in the ad hoc group that has been privately discussing plans for the Civic Arts District, Freeman said.

“The group anticipated presenting preliminary plans to the community ? at least discussing preliminary plans with the community some time in the next 30 to 40 days,” Freeman said.

“In the interim, the Laguna Art Museum is planning an open house, at which time, its concepts for an alternative approach to the Village Entrance will be presented. The date and time will be announced shortly.”