A second walk through the Village Entrance project

The City Council has reversed its fast-track course for the Village Entrance project.

Additions to the Village Entrance Environmental Impact Report (EIR) mean the public and city officials will get a second bite of the apple.

The council voted unanimously Tuesday to submit individual lists of items to be added to recommendations from the planning commission and stakeholders for consideration at the April 17 meeting. The amended report will be recirculated for public review and comment.

“I agree that we should take it slow — revise, expand and recirculate the EIR, but I want to remind everyone that Toni [Mayor Iseman] and I went through a lot to come up with ‘the compromise,’ ” Councilwoman Elizabeth Schneider said.

The compromise was a plan hammered out and endorsed by Iseman and Schneider for the relocation of some elements of the municipal maintenance yard to the remote ACT V parking lot and the development of the present corporation yard as the long-awaited Village Entrance.

“I support the Village Entrance project, but I can’t at present support the current project as proposed because the EIR doesn’t provide adequate analysis on which to base a decision,” said former Planning Commissioner Becky Jones.

Jones said the document should contain a needs analysis of user groups that will be served by the parking structure that is an integral component of the project and evaluate.

“The project is not intended to provide parking for the summer festival- and beach-goers,” Jones said. “Both the Downtown Specific Plan and the [general plan] Transportation Element are clear that long-term parking for the seasonal influx of visitors should be located at a more distant periphery — entrances to town — and served by a tram system..”

A Village Laguna tag team of Ann Christoph and Barbara Metzgar provided the council with the group’s comments.

“We support the planning commission’s recommendation to improve and recirculate the EIR,” Christoph said.

Planning commissioners want included in the expanded impact report the Laguna Playhouse project and its cumulative effect analyzed; a parking needs assessment documenting the use by stakeholders in the area; an alternative that omits a parking structure; improvement of the sewer pump station on the site; a preliminary construction staging plan; and an augmented traffic study to consider the effects on Forest Avenue and on peak hours, especially on weekends during the summer and events such as the Pageant of the Masters or a play.

Christoph said the report needs clearer project objectives and alternatives.

Another issue that needs consideration, she said, is the growth-inducing aspect of the project.

“The document says it is not growth inducing, but we question that,” Christoph said. “Many proposals will come in later to use the parking structure.”

Metzgar said the traffic study does not include an analysis at 7:30 and 10:30 p.m. on nights when the Pageant of the Masters is staged.

“Wayne Baglin informed us that there are 2,500 seats in the Irvine Bowl,” Metzgar said. “What happens when all of them leave at once?”

Festival of Arts President Anita Mangels supported the Village Entrance project, but said festival officials are concerned that environmental issues are not fully fleshed out in the impact report.

The council also voted to direct City Manager Ken Frank to investigate the cost of moving the aging sewer pump station to another location. In the current plan, the pump station would be beneath the parking structure.

The impact report is available on CD at city hall. For more information, visit www.lagunabeachcity.net.