Decor store may be last downtown

Unique Finds is the most recent home decor and accessories store to be approved by the Planning Commission for Forest Avenue, a commercial street on which diversity is a prized commodity.

It may be the last for a while.

“Home furnishing stores have about reached saturation, the point where we draw the line,” Commissioner Norm Grossman said.

In the last couple of years, the commission has approved Tuvalu, Stylistic Interventions and Art of the Soul. Several other home decor and/or accessory stores have been in business on the avenue even longer.

However, Unique Finds owner Candy Bean convinced the commission that her store would not duplicate inventory carried by other retailers in the city’s commercial heart.

“I am not sure how to explain x it,” Bean said of the stock she described as “one-of-a-kind.”

The commission attached a condition to the approval of the permit that no items in the store would be purchased from catalogues or through merchandise shows, a condition Grossman said he doesn’t recall ever used in any other application.

“No problem,” Bean said.

x Another condition stipulates no mass-produced products.

Merchandise will consist of 10% each of bronze, artisan-signed, hand-painted, iron pieces, stone or metal objects, stained glass and etchings and Eastern collectibles, such as sculptures. Woodworking, such as tables and chests and wrought iron pieces, will each make up 20% of the inventory.

x Bean said that she is constantly searching for “unique” merchandise from local and international artisans, estate sales and importers, without specifying the items.x

Staff said the description was vague but consistent with the Downtown Specific Plan, which encourages businesses that enhance the character of Laguna Beach, offer distinctive merchandise and promote businesses owned and operated by skilled artisans.

Unique Finds is located at 210 Forest Ave., in a 1,100-square-foot suite on the second floor of the building it shares with Fingerhut Gallery and Chico’s on the corner of Forest Avenue and South Coast Highway.

“We are hoping that her items will be found nowhere else in town so they will attract customers to the upstairs location,” Grossman said.

Second-floor locations have proved problematic for retailers.

“Being upstairs is a concern, but we have so much window space facing on Forest Avenue that between the lighting and the merchandise display, we hope we can capture the attention of customers,” Bean said.

The commission unanimously approved the use permit. No Forest Avenue store owners spoke in opposition to their new competitor and staff recommended the approval.

Eighteen conditions were attached to the approval.

“We are concerned about the difficulty in the past of enforcing conditions to maintain the quality promised by applicants,” Planning Commissioner Anne Johnson said.

Enforcing the conditions specific to Bean’s application or determining if an item is mass-produced will require significant staff time and knowledge, city Assistant Planner Murillo advised the commission.

The conditions could be understood to prohibit the sale of some Victorian pieces — many of which were mass-produced — or a set of Chippendale chairs, since each would not be unique, as defined in Roget’s Thesaurus as “sole, single, singular or only.”

x “We will take a reasonable approach in interpreting the conditions,” Grossman said. “The idea is to get away from modern, mass-produced items.”x

While retail businesses emphasizing custom, hand-crafted or distinctive merchandise generally are permitted by the city code in the commercial district of the Downtown Specific Plan, diversity is encouraged.

In the past, concerns about the proliferation of T-shirt and yogurt shops, cookie stores, juice bars, women’s clothing and jewelry stores, and even art galleries in the area have led to the denial of proposed businesses.

Last year, a women’s clothing store was denied because other business owners convinced city officials that Laguna was saturated with similar merchandise.

Even without duplication of merchandise, saturation of purpose can erode diversity, commissioners said. If one shop sells only macaroons and others specialize only in ginger snaps, Florentines or lebkuchen, they are all selling cookies, Johnson said.

“We are reaching the point where we will have to start watching these home furnishings and accessory stores,” Johnson said.

But Bean got in under the wire. The store will celebrate its grand opening all day Sept. 1.

The public is invited.