Laguna Beach’s City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to explore options to close a growing deficit for operating transit services, but stopped short of imposing fares for the free summer trolley during its 10-week festival run. Instead council members approved spending $50,000 to hire an expert consultant to analyze transit services, whose costs have escalated 22 [...]
Does Laguna Beach’s charm arise from its architecture? Its geography? Its people? Does it matter what views pedestrians have as they make their way around town? What kind of trees should line the streets? Should policies be set to make improvements? Ideas on Laguna’s “village character” and how best to define and preserve the views [...]
One rare tree received a reprieve while seven others that shade downtown streets but are buckling sidewalks will get the ax during a sidewalk repair project underway, Laguna Beach’s City Council decided Tuesday, voting to postpone their replacement until looking further at alternatives. Though staff determined the project to be exempt from design review, Council [...]
Thanks to the initiative of some high school students, a secure prescription drug drop box was installed this week outside the Laguna Beach Police Department. Located in an alcove to the left of the lobby doors, the box serves the public as a repository for the safe disposal of any prescription drugs they no longer [...]
Laguna Beach’s City Council will consider options at Tuesday’s meeting on how to close a growing deficit from running transit services, whose costs have escalated 22 percent over four years to $2.4 million annually. Suggested ways to reduce the gap include hiking fares and cutting routes on the city’s mainline bus service, imposing a fee [...]
Whole Foods manager Richard Dinan was still talking to Laguna Beach police dispatchers, describing a shoplifter that had exited the store with more than $200 worth of groceries last week, when Detective Larry Bammer and a motorcycle officer showed up. Bammer, who was reassigned to foot patrol that day, was right around the corner from [...]
By a 4-1 vote, Laguna Beach’s City Council endorsed a plan disproving the Joni Mitchell song about paving paradise to put up a parking lot. Their plan for a long-sought village entrance will un-pave a parking lot, summoning paradise in the form of an urban park where asphalt now sprawls beside City Hall, along with [...]
Laguna Beach’s City Council voted 4-1 on Tuesday to move forward with a $35 million multi level parking structure and park for the town’s village entrance, despite concerns raised by dissenting member Toni Iseman about costs. More than 30 people addressed the special meeting in Council Chambers, which was filled to capacity. Council members Elizabeth [...]
To take advantage of a potential $3.7 million windfall in county transportation funding, Laguna Beach’s City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to apply for a grant that could expand the city’s popular free summer trolley service to weekends in six post-summer months. The windfall comes via the countywide Measure M half-cent sales tax that funds various [...]
The village entrance project to beautify the area between Forest Avenue and the festivals and put in a parking structure has been on and off the table for so long that many have given up on it. “We have been romanced and courted for too long,” said George Nelson, owner of the downtown gift store [...]
Testimony about potential hazards due to the surge of companies offering stand-up paddling lessons on local beaches prompted the City Council on Tuesday to approve developing an ordinance covering safety, insurance and liability rules related to companies providing instruction for the sport, sidestepping a call to also ban mobile operators. Complaints stemming from the impacts [...]
Laguna Beach’s City Council on Tuesday will consider potential regulation of stand-up paddling instruction due to complaints stemming from the surge of companies offering lessons on public beaches. In a letter sent to council members last November, owners or managers of four local shops involved with surf and paddleboard rentals or instruction decried the plethora [...]
Just six weeks after its formation, the newly established View Equity Committee seems determined to deliver on putting teeth in a new city ordinance. But first they want a test drive, to understand how a potential view equity claim would play out under the model adopted by Rancho Palos Verdes, which passed one of the [...]
In other business Tuesday night, the City Council approved the addition of a rooftop deck at Mozambique restaurant, subject to proposed design changes. In January, local resident Gary Hollon challenged the rooftop plan, claiming that the restaurant had not staked the proposed umbrellas, heaters and elevator shaft on the rooftop to allow neighbors to assess [...]
Motorists who travel inbound on Laguna Canyon Road, often ignoring the posted 45 mph speed limit, present an escalating threat to pedestrians near the main campus of Laguna College of Art & Design, according to the college’s top administrator. While a pedestrian crosswalk and warning signs have been installed near the main campus and a [...]
Police Use Taser to Subdue Assault Suspect
An assault involving three men escalated into a struggle with Laguna Beach police, who ultimately deployed a taser twice to subdue the younger combative suspect in the 300 block of Cozumel around 1:15 a.m. Friday, May 10, police said. Police ultimately arrested Laguna Beach resident Sergio Gabriel Borgognone, 51, for allegedly resisting arrest and his [...]
