Staff Reports Available
George Weiss: Staff Reports on City Council proceedings are always readily available. To read the Staff Reports on any of the items below, go to: https://lagunabeachcity.granicus.com/GeneratedAgendaViewer.php?view_id=3&clip_id=2492

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Summary: In this recap we cover the Sale of the Ti Amo Property, Approval of 2024 Mills Act Contracts for Six Properties, and a Summary of the Aliso Creek Restoration Project. 

 

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Items of Interest from Public Comments

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Dr. Andrea Deerheart, founder of  The Heart Way, a Laguna Beach nonprofit whose mission is to provide end of life supportive services at no cost to families announced an event to be held on Saturday November 2nd, 2024, at Anneliese Schools. See this url: for more information: www.theheartway.org 

 

Jeff Kagel or Cagle who lives adjacent to 470 Seaview complained about an  ADU going up which is larger than the house itself. 

 

Brendan Crigler also complained about this same ADU saying it impairs the integrity of the sight lines of the neighborhood he also thinks that Neighborhood Congregational Church housing project is too large a development at 55 units.
 

 

Jane Felder said he was grateful to Chris Quilter for bringing up the issue of the Brown Act violations that occurred in September of 2021. Gene recited a chronology of the events of the Brown Act violations committed by certain City Council members and  the last letter from the District Attorney dated October 14th. It requires the council to take notes at closed sessions and have the city attorney recite certain prohibitions at the start of closed session meetings. In return for which the District Attorney would not prosecute the Brown Act violations against certain members of the City Council.

 

Sherry Morgan spoke about a coming event at Laguna Beach high school a play called Trap which is a mystery she also thanked the City Council and city for the facilities master plan concept said the pool was a possibility at Lang park and suggested to see if the hospital could be a partner for a rehab pool next to the main Pool

 

Steve Brown thanked  Mr. Kiff, and Councilmembers Orgill and Rounaghi  on presenting the Master Facilities Plan.

 

Max Isles also spoke about the ADU at Seaview its height and size and said residents were never notified. 

 

Pat Galis asked about the CEQA lawsuit against the city's Downtown Specific Plan update. He saw political posters at a couple of tree wells in the Promenade and 30 minutes later they were gone.  He got a call from Jerome Pudwill and wondered who told Jerome to call him.

 

Michele Monda thanked Dave Kiff for mitigating the dangerous parking situation at 8th St., and said Mr. Kiff was very receptive to residents and asked to reinstate Zoom.

 

Greg Viviani cautioned the  city to prepare for the onslaught of tourists 8 months from now before the summer surge of trash.

 

Michele Hyberg mentioned her organization Just Gather and thanked the organizers of  Laguna Kindness Day and thanked the council.

 

Jacob Cherub questioned the planned 7,000 sq. ft. spiritual center proposed for Neighborhood Congregational Church low-income housing project.

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CONSENT ITEMS (pulled for discussion by Councilmembers or the Public)

 

Item # 6 Sale of Ti Amo property: passed 5-0. 

 

Public Comments: 
 

Bruce Dwyer wanted to know why an offer from a provider of low-income housing was not accepted by the city.  That offer showed 24 units being built at the site. 

 

GW: The answer is that the offer was not financially attractive and would interfere with providing the funding needed to build Fire Station # 4. 

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Background:  The property was purchased by the city in 2021 as a site on which we could build a new fire station in S. Laguna. The current one is almost 75 years old. The purchase was made without an appraisal for 2.8 million. Three city council members fell into line with the former City Manager, Shohreh Dupuis recommendation. Former Councilwoman Toni Iseman and I voted NO. 

 

The former City Manager insisted the site would work so the city spent another $100,000.00 in consulting fees to determine it would work but would lack many of the features of a modern fire station and would be too small to house an ambulance. (LBFD was already planning to bring this service in-house.) 

 

The sales price was 3.5 million. So, luckily, we made money on the deal. 

 

GW: This became a controversial purchase. Fire Dept. officials were forced by the former CM to support the purchase and no one else within the LBFD supported it either. In addition, to accommodate a fire truck, a two-foot thick, reinforced concrete floor would have to be built to manage the load because underground parking was needed due to the limited size of the site. 

 

The buyer owns national award winning, Truly Pizza, and the site will be used as a commissary bakery where pizza dough and other ingredients will be prepared and distributed to Truly locations in Dana Point, a soon to open location in Laguna Beach and other cities. In addition, the site may have its own café (pizzeria?) as well. The owner will be going through the normal entitlement process so there will be opportunities for public input. See Truly’s website here: https://www.trulypizza.com/

 

In 2023 the city  purchased a much larger property accoss the street at 5th and S. Coast Highway for 6.1 million. It is ideal for a modern fire station. With the proceeds from the sale of Ti Amo and other funding, the City is planning to build the new station in the next two years or so. See the attached article for more information on Ti Amo.

 

 

Item # 7 Approval 0f Mills Act Contracts for 6 Residential Properties: Passed 5-0

 

Background: The Mills Act was adopted by the State Legislature in 1976, and under its terms the City, at its discretion, can provide lower property tax assessments in return for maintaining a historic home or commercial property. 

 

Currently the city has entered into 132 contracts with owners of qualified properties for a minimum of 10 years.  The Heritage Committee reviews all properties and establishes their qualification. For those 132 properties the city realizes $710,787.00 less tax revenue for all contracts than we would normally receive. 

 

The owner is required to maintain the property and invest in maintenance and care as a historic home or commercial property. This benefits the public as well. See example of a historic shop in Laguna below: 

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REGULAR AGENDA

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Item # 12, Summary of Aliso Creek Estuary Restoration Conceptual Review and Next Steps: Passed 5-0 

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A Conceptual Rendering of the Aliso Creek Estuary 

 

Background: The Laguna Ocean Foundation is proposing restoration of the Aliso Creek Estuary on City-owned property. The estuary site was re-developed 50 plus years ago for parking and a park. Doing this destroyed the natural estuary. See historic pictures below. 

 

A brief summary of the restoration can be read here: 
https://www.lagunabeachindy.com/digital_edition/indy_issue_archives/estuary-re-envisioned-for-degraded-aliso-creek/article_911f054a-8f69-5b5f-b4c0-17b0f6269f29.html

 

The objective is to restore a severely degraded estuary, so this ecosystem functions once again and acts as an ecological bridge between the Blue Belt and the Green Belt. The Laguna Ocean Foundation has done heavy lifting on this complicated project. Read their report here:  https://www.lagunaoceanfoundation.org/aliso-creek-estuary-restoration/

 

Also read the city’s staff report, public comments in support and opposition here:    https://lagunabeachcity.granicus.com/MetaViewer.php?view_id=3&clip_id=2492&meta_id=204729           

 

Public Comments:

A list of those who spoke: Toni Iseman (former City Council Member), Ginger Wallace, Charlotte Mazerik, Adam Redding-Kaufman, Andrew  Kaufman (acting Director of the Laguna Canyon Foundation), Greg Viviani, Robert, Joanne and Kate McMahon, Debbie Neeves (former DRB and Water District Commissioner), Judie Mancuso, (former Chair of the City’s Environmental and Sustainability Committee), Mark Christy, (managing partner of The Ranch @ Laguna Beach), Tom Lamb, Cindy Love, Gayle Waite, (President of the Laguna Canyon Conservancy), Tom and Ginger Osborne, (Tom is a retired professor and has written 2 books on California history), Mike Marriner, Tim Hiemstra, (representing Coast Keepers), Paul Naude, Ed Sauls, (CEO of The California Land Conservancy) Mike Beanan (President of the LB Bluebelt Coalition), Karen Schwager, Jaleesa Peluso, Abbas Khoshniyati

 

In addition, the following sent in letters in support for the project:

Kent Morris, Cheryl Procaccini  Scott Ferguson, Sita and Henry Helms,  Dan Silver Jeff Tescher,  Greg O’Loughlin,  Dr. Maura Conlon, Katie Nichols. (California State Coastal Conservancy), Judy Teverbaugh,  Ava Alberts, Adele Marco, the Acjachemen Tribe, US Fish and Wildlife Service, Mike Beanan, Ginger Wallace 

 

Those who wrote letters in Opposition: Abbas Khoshniyati, Robert McMahon Joanne McMahon Jamie O'Brien, Chad Stickney, Carrie Cummings, Pete Fiato, Jeffrey Factor, Belinda Zoller, Marc Wade, and Mary Gehley

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GW: My Comments on the Estuary

I have been skeptical of this project because I was and am still unable to take in all its complexities. But don’t we have an obligation to Mother Nature to restore our environment whenever possible? This is a critical habitat and offers a rare opportunity to restore what was lost. (Unbelievably, it may be completed without spending much taxpayer money)

 

Will the project improve the health of the water or just be a breeding ground for mosquitoes? Won’t all the wildlife just be flushed out to the ocean during major storms? Will the skim boarders still have use of creek for skimboarding? What about the impacts to the Aliso Circle neighborhood? Removing the Kids Playground is a non-starter for me. Is the notion of stopping the creek’s flow unrealistic? Will it really create new wildlife habitat that significantly benefits both the Green Belt and the Blue Belt? Will it create more tourism? I do not think we want that.  What about removing some parking? That is not good either. Is the bridge just a benefit for a commercial enterprise or not? What impacts will it have on the homeowners nearby? Was the noticing appropriate?

 

The Planning Commission unanimously supported the initial concept review of the project and made recommendations for changes. They will repeat that review once or twice more.  I believe there has been and will continue to be opportunities for the public to provide input. 

 

Eventually, if we get that far, the Environmental Impact Report will answer most if not all the questions residents and other stakeholders have posed, including the option of not moving forward. At the end of the day, I retained some skepticism of the project for the same reasons I mentioned above. This is not a final decision, just a step forward to assessing the viability, benefits, and negative outcomes of the project.