Emerald Bay wants permit exemption

Emerald Bay residents hope the Laguna Beach City Council will decide they don’t need a coastal development permit to make changes to an intersection near the gated community.

Having the permit waived would allow improvements — which supporters say would enhance traffic safety at an accident-prone intersection — to begin immediately.

The council will hold a public hearing Dec. 10 to discuss proposed alterations at North Coast Highway and Shamrock Road, known as the Main Gate locales.

The hearing is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. in council chambers, 505 Forest Ave..

The “minor but important safety improvements” include adding a raised median on North Coast Highway, restriping the road and adding three street lights to improve nighttime visibility, according to a letter that the Main Gate Executive Committee, the Emerald Bay group overseeing the proposed project, sent to residents. Emerald Bay is unincorporated, but the exterior roads are in Laguna Beach.

At this time, the improvements do not include a traffic signal, the committee’s letter said. The City Council requested during its May 15, 2012, meeting that any alterations not include a traffic signal.

“I’m disappointed, but we understand people don’t like traffic lights,” said Susan Thomas, Main Gate Executive Committee chairwoman.

The proposed improvements include restriping Shamrock Road to make two lanes into and out of Emerald Bay and elongating the southbound left-turn pocket from the road onto North Coast Highway as well as a northbound acceleration lane.

“It’s very congested in the morning, making a left off of Shamrock,” Thomas said. “This will make it safer for anyone turning in or out. It seems like a reasonable compromise. It will help slow traffic down.”

The group has worked for the improvements since 2004, when 19-year-old motorcyclist Aron Negron was killed when a 72-year-old driver struck him while making a left from Shamrock onto North Coast Highway, according to a Los Angeles Times story written at the time.

The county approved all aspects of the project in 2011 and issued a coastal development permit, according to the Main Gate Executive Committee’s letter.

For the city to exempt Emerald Bay from a permit, it would need to determine that the suggested improvements would not adversely affect coastal resources, coastal views, public access or any other matter governed by the state’s Coastal Act, according to a city staff report.

“Caltrans, the city and Emerald Bay have agreed that the proposed improvements will enhance safety at the intersection,” the letter said. “All parties agree that only Caltrans and the city of Laguna Beach will make all decisions regarding any possible future installation of a traffic signal.”

Patty Collisson, who has lived in Emerald Bay for 30 years, is concerned that the proposed changes might be the start of an attempt to eventually install a traffic signal.

“The [proposed] lights in the intersection aren’t needed,” Collisson said.

Collisson questioned why Caltrans would continue to work with the committee and city if a signal was not part of the plan, but Caltrans spokesman David Richardson said the state agency tries to work with cities when necessary.

The issue has generated much debate among residents and sparked a flood of emails to council members.

Mayor Pro Tem Elizabeth Pearson said that during her 16 years of involvement with the city, the Emerald bay item has generated the most emails and phone calls, according to minutes from a council meeting earlier this year.

Mayor Kelly Boyd, who was a councilman in May 2012, said he had several meetings with Emerald Bay residents and was willing to work with them on improvements without a traffic signal, the minutes said.

Police have recorded 17 traffic collisions on North Coast Highway within the vicinity of Emerald Bay since 2008, including six specifically noted at the intersection with Shamrock Road.

In June, an inattentive driver rear-ended two other cars while all three vehicles were making a right turn onto Shamrock, police said.

In March 2010, a man driving a pickup made an illegal U-turn on North Coast Highway and broadsided a Bentley, which was heading north on the road and had just exited Emerald Bay, Capt. Jason Kravetz wrote in an email. No one was injured.

The city has waived permits for traffic signals in the past, but said each case is different.

The city waived permits for a traffic signal at two locations — the intersection of 10th Avenue and Coast Highway, and on Laguna Canyon Road adjacent to the Festival of the Arts — but it required a permit for a traffic signal at Forest Avenue and Broadway Street, according to the staff report.

“The requirement for a coastal development permit must be made on the basis of a site-specific, case-by-case assessment of the underlying facts and circumstances,” the report said. “The disposition of a particular exemption request does not create a precedent for action on another request.”

If the council approves the waiver, Emerald Bay Service District and Emerald Bay Community Assn. board members would finalize cost estimates and hold community workshops to provide more information about the project, the Main Gate Committee letter said.

Emerald Bay residents would pay for the proposed changes, Thomas said.