Building heights revisited

Building heights in Laguna won’t get higher under proposed changes to the city’s code.

The City Council is scheduled to hear at Tuesday’s meeting changes to the height regulations recommended by the Planning Commission, a complex undertaking.

“Our city codes are so convoluted because of the topography of the city,” Planning Commissioner Norm Grossman said. “It took us at least four months and a half-dozen hearings to make the changes.”

Grossman said the changes tighten and clarify the height restrictions and the number of allowable stories. Maximum heights were left unchanged. The city’s code doesn’t allow any building to be more than 36 feet tall.

The commission recommendations amend sections of the Laguna Beach Municipal Code, the Downtown Specific Plan and the Laguna Canyon Annexation Area Specific Plan provisions, all relating to height regulations in the city’s commercial, light industrial and institutional zones.

“This was sent to us to deal with underground parking, which essentially we did not — because of the number of complications, principally the lack of understanding of the implications of changing the regulations,” Grossman said.

Projects with underground parking have been criticized as a means to increase the density or mass of a project. Exposed ramps for subterranean parking will still count as a floor under the commission recommendations. A variance could be approved.

“Personally, I believe using parking as a means of restricting development intensity is wrong,” Grossman said. “Projects should be evaluated on their own merits.”

The commission approved the recommendations unanimously at its June 25 meeting.

BARBARA DIAMOND can be reached at (949) 494-4321 or coastlinepilot@latimes.com.