Editor,
Laguna Beach is such a unique community, and our uniqueness is what makes us such a desirable place to live and for tourists to visit.
We have raised our family here and seen so many things happen for the good. Consider our purchase of the main beach commercial properties and our development of our beautiful “window to the sea”. We saved the canyon and surrounded ourselves with our green belt to preserve our hillsides from development. We fight to resist mansionization on a daily basis to save our city for families as opposed to giving it up to opportunists, show offs, and developers.
Once again we are being called upon to face another challenge to our uniqueness. Again, it’s the canyon. A proposed “artist live and work” project in the canyon has been staked revealing its massiveness. The stakes make it so obvious that this project is completely incompatible with the life and neighborhood surroundings of our pristine Laguna Canyon. Its approval will set a precedent for further canyon development of this scale and forever change the character of this Laguna neighborhood. Canyon residents oppose the project yet it goes forward.
Yes, we need to stave off the exodus of our artists and we need “live and work” accommodations for our artists. But they must be something artists can afford to rent or purchase, and they must be compatible with the neighborhood. This currently proposed project will do neither. In reality it will be just another commercial development purely for the financial gain of the developer.
It is the duty of the Planning Commissioners and our City Council to preserve our much cherished way of life. We saved the canyon once and we must do it again. Failure to preserve the canyon with approval of such a clearly incompatible structure for the neighborhood is unthinkable. It will set a terrible precedent for further development in the canyon and elsewhere in our city. Save the canyon.
Don Knapp, Laguna Beach
