Panel declines center design

The city can build a community/senior center on Third Street, but the proposed design doesn’t do justice to the site, city planning commissioners said Wednesday.

Commissioners, who review designs for projects in the Downtown Specific Plan area, voted unanimously to recommend approval of the condition use permit, the coastal development permit and the amended environmental impact report for the project, but not the proposed design, which they said needs a more welcoming façade.

“No way is it pedestrian friendly,” Commissioner Norm Grossman said.

Commissioners objected to the long wall that stretches along Third Street, from the corner of Mermaid Street to almost the middle of the site, where a staircase runs parallel to the sidewalk. The sideways stairs, which make possible a less steep climb to the entry, are supported by another wall.

Commissioners also faulted the windowless elevations on two sides of the plan presented by LPA architects Charlie Williams and Wendy Rogers.

Laguna Beach Seniors Inc. supported the plan, as is, for the Susi Q Senior Center and the Community Center. They fear changes will delay the scheduled April groundbreaking, which they said might derail the entire project that they have worked on for more than five years.

“The main issue is to get started,” senior Marjorie Adams said. “We are getting paralysis of analysis. We are not going to get everything. This will not be a Disneyland castle, but it is a workable building.”

Speakers in favor of the design included Chris Quilter, who with his three brothers contributed $750,000 toward the seniors’ share of the construction costs of the center, which is to bear the pen name of their mother, the late Elizabeth Quilter.

“I am one of the four sons of ‘Susi Q,’ and we have a lot riding on this,” Quilter said. “I thought you might like to hear how we feel about the building in which we have invested. We feel great about it.”

Commissioner Bob Chapman said the hearing was the commission’s first crack at the design and input from the public.

“Our job is to create a forum for everyone to participate,” Chapman said. “This is not a rubber-stamp process.”

Chapman agreed with Grossman’s evaluation of the Third Street façade.

“The wall is a barrier,” Chapman said. “We are not going to be able to see what the architects have created.”

Site constraints played a major role in the design, the architects said.

“Taking into account that this is a difficult site intruding into a charming residential area, surrounded by busy Third Street and two very narrow lanes with multi-family residences, the city and LPA, working with you — the seniors and the council — have done a fine job,” said Loma Terrace resident Ed Barbieri, speaking also for his wife.

However, he questioned the location of trash bins and any public parking on the Loma Terrace side of the structure.

The 19,056 square-foot building, which will be used for senior and community activities, faces Third Street and is bounded by Loma Terrace in back, Mermaid Street and the Laguna Beach Community Clinic on the sides. “Solutions and suggestions that have been proposed to rescue the current design are inadequate and only serve as Band-Aids on a project that is too much for the site,” former Design Review Board member Linda Morgenlander saidMorgenlander said the commission should treat the city project the same way it would treat a private project: if not happy with the design, send it back to the drawing board, regardless of the time or money spent on it.

“[We] look to the commission to represent the rest of the community,” Top of the World resident Johanna Felder said. “The seniors are putting in $3 million [toward construction]. The community is putting in the rest of the $15 million.”

Community Services Director Susan Cannan said the suggestion to create a light well along the Mermaid Street elevation would increase costs by $400,000 and might be a pitfall for children.

A second design review hearing was scheduled for Nov. 15. If more time is required, the city will seek a continuance.

The commission is an advisory body to the City Council. The council has the final say on the proposed project, which it has already reviewed and approved changes that were made to keep it within budget.