Montage parking project under fire

Reconfiguration of the Montage Resort and Spa’s so-called “bubble” parking lot on the inland side of Pacific Coast Highway is driving the tenants of Laguna Terrace Park crazy.

The lot was given that moniker because of its shape and to differentiate it from another nearby parking lot.

When completed, all employee parking will enter and exit South Coast Highway from the same roadway used by the mobile home park residents and patrons of Ruby’s Diner.

“My issue is the traffic flow,” said Dan Freeman, president of the residents’ Laguna Terrace Park Assn. Inc. “Until recently the incoming flow was at the Ruby’s (northern) end of the ‘bubble’ and the outgoing flow was at the southern end through the strip lot to the signal.”

The resort vacated the so-called linear strip in February when the lease with Laguna Terrace Park concluded. The south end of the “bubble” is now gated, barring traffic into the strip, which is part of the parking lot project.

“Montage Resort & Spa is constructing a final, city-approved parking lot on the old Unocal site, which will yield 56 parking spaces and fulfill the final parking requirements of the original Montage coastal development permit,” resort spokeswoman Joan Gladstone said.

The constructed parking lot will include new landscaping and lighting, Gladstone said. Plans can be reviewed at city hall.

Freeman said the Montage may have solved its parking problems, but worries that traffic problems in the area are only beginning.

“We argued and argued with the city that the plan would create a monstrous traffic situation,” Freeman said.

“The city wouldn’t listen. The Planning Commission wouldn’t listen and the Design Review Board said they were only looking at a permit for landscaping.”

Planning Commissioners supported the concept as a better alternative for the neighborhood.

“The park residents have legitimate concerns,” Planning Commissioner Norm Grossman said. “But the Montage was pressured to acquire the parking lot to resolve its parking problems.

“And the lot is less impactful than the proposed project for the site when the Montage bought it, which was a small retail center. It wasn’t going to stay a vacant lot.”

Caltrans was not involved in the proposal because technically the “bubble” doesn’t encroach on the highway, which is Caltrans territory. The access road to the park, Ruby’s and the parking lot is not under Caltrans jurisdiction.

“You are going to have traffic going into Ruby’s, traffic going into and out of the [bubble], traffic going into and out of the park and traffic exiting Ruby’s to make a left-hand turn onto the highway,” Freeman said. “And it’s all uncontrolled. No signal, not even a stop sign.”

Freeman said the park residents even floated the idea of a driveway on the southern boundary of the bubble, but it went nowhere.

“About the best we can hope for is that the signal at Montage Drive will be synchronized with the signal that is supposed to be installed at the entrance to St. Catherine’s School, which would allow a gap in traffic for left hand turns onto the highway,” Freeman said.

Freeman doesn’t believe the “bubble” will provide all the parking that is needed to accommodate guests and employees of the resort.

“My suggestion ever since they bought Ben Brown’s was to build a three-story parking structure tucked in the back and cover it with ivy,” Freeman said. “No one would even notice it was there.

“This whole problem goes back to the city dropping the ball. It didn’t do its homework and now we have this big mess.”

Freeman said there are 157 spaces in the mobile home park, four of them empty and some of them only occupied part-time. He estimated that the occupied spaces average one vehicle per unit. Ideally, he said, the residents could buy the park property, which includes the linear strip, then sell off the strip to the Montage, which could eliminate the parking and make it a two-lane “bubble” lot access and egress from the signaled intersection.