CITYSCAPE ROUNDUP:Art to be dedicated for yard

The City of Laguna Beach will dedicate public art for its new public parking facility and maintenance yard at 1900 Laguna Canyon Road, known as the Act V parking lot, at 5 p.m. on July 5.

The lot has been reconstructed, and the area will become the new location for the city’s corporation yard, housing the city’s transit buses and other municipal facilities that are now located off Forest Avenue near city hall.

The dedication for John Barber, Bill Howard and Louis Longi’s collaborative sculptural elements, “Beacon” and “Usher In,” will be followed by a reception.

Art Walk will be held later in the evening, from 6 to 9 p.m., throughout Laguna.

A free shuttle to participating gallery locations will start at 6:15 p.m. at the Laguna Art Museum, Cliff Drive and North Coast Highway, and Bluebird Center, 1590 South Coast Highway.

Shuttles will run until 8:45 p.m.

For more information, visit www.firstthursdaysartwalk.com or call (949) 683-6871.

Kawaratani to discuss design review

Steve Kawaratani, a former Laguna Beach Design Review Board member, will shed some light on the “The Ins and Outs of Design Review” at the next Laguna Beach Business Club meeting at the Hotel Laguna at 7:30 a.m., Thursday, June 21.

The design review process in Laguna Beach is required for nearly all new construction, and the process often results in contention among homeowners with competing issues of view equity, mass and scale, neighborhood compatibility, variances and landscape mitigation.

Kawaratani will attempt to shed some light on how to streamline the process and tactics to avoid common pitfalls.

Kawaratani is a 56-year resident of Laguna Beach and a landscape designer for more than 30 years.

His practice includes consultation for homeowners associations on landscape and slope issues, as well as community development and design review concerns.

Kawaratani is a former chairman of the Design Review Board and past member of the California Certified Nurseryman’s Committee. He writes a weekly gardening column for the Coastline Pilot as well as horticultural articles for various publications and the Internet. He is a graduate of Whittier College and regular speaker on the Orange County garden club circuit.

The Business Club meets every third Thursday. Visitors are welcome, and reservations are required. A full buffet breakfast is served, and the cost is $20.

RSVP to the club’s president Steve Ewing at (949) 497-4275 or e-mail steve@ewingdesigngroup.com.

Team reports on trip to help Katrina victims

Community members are invited to hear stories from Laguna Presbyterian Church’s volunteers for Presbyterian Disaster Assistance, who helped repair damage caused by Hurricane Katrina, at 10 a.m. Sunday, June 17, in the Parlor of the church, 415 Forest Ave., Laguna Beach.

Laguna residents Meg Schaefer, Bob DeJager, Stan Carmichael, Bill Odlum, Bud Weir, Jay Andrus and Rick Shoemaker traveled to Biloxi/Gulf Port, Miss., earlier this year.

The team built a bathroom, complete with tub, toilet and vanity, for Mary Magee, a divorced mother of five children. They also built and roofed a vinyl-sided storage shed for a woman who housed five FEMA trailers on her property.

In addition, Shirley Case will play ragtime music, while fresh homemade beignets made by Shirley and her husband, Storm, are served.

Donations to Presbyterian Disaster Assistance are requested. Laguna Presbyterian Parlor is located on the corner of Forest and Second avenues. For more information, contact Rick Shoemaker at (949) 497-9104.