Commission recommends roadway

A new hilltop road to facilitate the development of four homes in South Laguna has been recommended unanimously by the Laguna Beach Planning Commission.

The recommended access road off Ceanothus Drive is considered a better way to go than an original proposal for driveways off the beleaguered, winding roadway, commissioners agreed. It also means that instead of five homes, only four will be built.

“No one was happy, but the closest neighbors thought it was a better solution,” Planning Commissioner Anne Johnson said of the March 12 vote.

The recommended access was relocated to the top of the lots, which staff and commission said would also benefit the neighborhood by reducing grading. The revised proposal also includes the donation of four acres to open space, with no construction intruding on the ridgeline, which Johnson said would benefit the entire community.

Ceanothus Drive resident Linda Kiehlmeier presented the commission a petition with more than 45 signatures opposing the revised access, which requires a variance.

“My neighbor and I collected signatures from residents on Ceanothus, Alta Loma, Ocean View, Holly Drive, Monterey and West Street, all the way down the hill,” Kiehlmeier said. “These are the people who would be affected, who live here, unlike the members of the commission.

“We are absolutely opposed to giving this developer a variance for a private road, whereby he has equal access to build on these five lots.”

Although there are five legal building sites, the property owner has agreed to develop only four of them.

However, opponents believe one of the four is not a legal building site, Kiehlmeier said.

“We will pose this to the council at the April 15 meeting, when the project is on the agenda,” Kiehlmeier said.

She said opponents also have been in touch with the California Coastal Commission.

“It is on their radar,” Kiehlmeier said.

Revisions recommended by the commission were not realistic and not properly reviewed, Kiehlmeier said.

“They were pretty much rubber-stamped with no consideration of the people who live there,” she said.

The commission is concerned about the impact on the neighbors, according to Johnson.

“We wrote a memo to the council indicating that the Planning Commission hopes the Design Review Board will pay close attention to the neighbors in reviewing proposals for the four sites,” Johnson said.

Commissioner and staff members said the audience was about evenly divided between supporters and opponents of the revised proposal, but Chairman Bob Chapman had to stop the meeting twice to ask the audience for a less exuberant display of opposition to the project.

Senior Planner Scott Drapkin advised the commission that staff concurred the revised proposal would benefit the neighborhood and was consistent with the intent of the city’s municipal code, general plan and the California Environmental Quality Act.

In his conclusion to the staff report, Drapkin stated, “The proposed application would reduce circulation impacts on Ceanothus Drive by decreasing five existing building sites to four (which would reduce total vehicle trips) and lessen multiple driveway access interference onto Ceanothus Drive.”

Access from the top of the lots also would reduce grading impacts.

Drapkin opined that generally, more grading is required with an “uphill house” design than with a “downhill house” design.

“They would have to scoop out more hillside, very similar to that happened below on Ceanothus that so distressed the neighbors, if the access isn’t changed,” Johnson said.

The proposed new road area is currently disturbed with an existing easement that is used regularly by the South Coast Water District to access the adjacent water tank, according to Drapkin. No further extension of the proposed street will be allowed.

“A variance will be required because the new road has more than a 12% grade,” Johnson said. “What we recommended is a bit less than 14%, which is prohibited.”

Two more variances will be needed for approval to encroach into two water courses with street improvements and fuel modification. Another variance will be required for approval of the indirect access to the sites.

As required by the California Environmental Quality Act, a mitigated negative declaration was circulated to address, and obtain comments about, potential environmental impacts and mitigations. The commission has recommended approval of both.

“Personally, I don’t believe we need an environmental [impact] report because of the amount of information we had on the environmental impacts and alternatives were sufficient to answer all my questions,” Commissioner Norm Grossman said. “I don’t believe an EIR would give us any additional information.”

Biological and traffic studies and an alternative analysis were conducted. The state Department of Fish and Game reviewed the project and made recommendations, which the commission has forwarded to the council for approval, Grossman said.

“The staff report was 200 pages long,” Grossman said.

Drapkin stated in his report the findings could be made for the requested Coastal Development Permit, lot line adjustment, grading exception and variances.

The March meeting was a continuation of a Feb. 27 meeting on the project, when the commission asked for alternatives to accessing the lots from the lower point on Ceanothus. Architect Kirk Saunders represented the applicant, Coast Royale LLC, at the hearings.