Few surprises surfaced in the public workshop held Tuesday as Laguna Beach’s city staff presented a proposed two-year budget, outlining estimated expenditures of $68.5 million for the coming fiscal year and of $67.6 million for the following year. City Council members largely endorsed staff recommendations for use of a $1.1 million windfall in the general [...]
In summing up Laguna Beach’s proposed $68.5 million annual budget, for the first time involving a two-year projected spending plan through June 2016, City Manager John Pietig tempered the good news about a recovering local economy with a prescription for caution moving forward. Revenue sources that account for most of the $48.5 million general fund [...]
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 [...]
Last Saturday about 60 people from the community as well as some Planning Commission officials surveyed Laguna Beach’s downtown area on foot, trying to form a common vision of potential revisions to a 23-year-old policy known as the Downtown Specific Plan. “You have to have everybody looking at the same thing,” said Planning Commissioner Norm [...]
“Women need delusion; men need something new.” So goes a line in Neil Simon’s play “Chapter Two,” currently on stage at Laguna Playhouse. While some audience members might think: “I wish I’d said that,” others might want more, wondering perhaps, what it would take to write a play that someone would want to see, perhaps [...]
What can you reuse in your home that might live a second life in your garden? Come find out at a workshop offered Saturday, Jan. 19, in the South Laguna Community Garden, 10 a.m. at Eagle Rock Way and Coast Highway. Horticulturist and Laguna Nursery owner Ruben Flores will give innovative tips on re-use, giving a [...]
By Monica Petrova, Special to the Independent Internationally recognized artist Deborah Paswaters’ inspiration comes from life and its ever-changing patterns. She shares her creativity through various mediums, including sculpture, collages and painting. Much of her work can be seen on canvases displayed in galleries or at her studio in Laguna Beach. Often related to [...]
Members of the public are invited to participate in a community workshop that is designed to spark discussions and generate ideas for the upcoming Parking Management Plan for Downtown Laguna Beach and Laguna Canyon Road. The workshop takes place Wednesday, Dec. 19 from 6:30 to 8 p.m. at the Susi Q Senior/Community Center, 380 3rd [...]
Laguna Outreach for Community Arts is offering a beginner-level botanicals art class at Laguna Nursery, 1370 S. Coast Highway, Saturday, Oct. 20, from 9:30-11 a.m. Horticulturalist Ruben Flores will introduce fall leaves, and Hedy Buzan will lead the art workshop. Attendees will create designer gift-wrap using leaf transfer techniques, image repeats and pattern rotations on [...]
The Laguna Beach Planning Commission is seeking community input about the Downtown Specific Plan’s short-comings and recommendations to improve the 23-year-old policies that guide land use and development decisions downtown. The workshop will be held on Nov. 1 at 6:30 p.m. in the City Council Chambers at Laguna Beach City Hall, 505 Forest Ave. The [...]
Local Jerry Bieser, of Chicago Title, a 30-year veteran of the real estate industry, leads a workshop at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 16, about home-owner vulnerability to fraud during refinancing. Learn how criminals are placing liens on properties and how to protect property with title insurance. The workshop will be held at the DeBilzan Gallery, [...]
Laguna Outreach for Community Arts is now taking registrations for a beginner-level clay-sculpting class. The workshop takes place at the Pacific Marine Mammal Center on Saturday, Oct. 6 from 9-10:30 a.m. The activity includes a docent tour of the center, and a close up view of live sea lions. Following the tour, participants will create [...]
The next “Open for Business” workshop, for business owners and others interested in opening or expanding businesses in Laguna Beach, will take place on Thursday, Sept. 27, from 6:30 – 8:30 p.m. at the Community Center, 380 Third St. Workshop participants will include Planning Commissioners Robert Zur Schmiede and Linda Dietrich and Monica Tuchscher, principal [...]
By Justin Swanson, Special to the Independent Five years ago, the Orange County branch of Susan G. Komen for the Cure held a breakfast workshop for breast cancer survivors, among them Sol Reyes Roberts of Laguna Beach. “That was my first entre into that world,” says Roberts, who two years later became a Komen board [...]
Laguna Outreach for Community Arts is now taking registrations for a beginner-level silk painting class. The workshop takes place at the Pacific Marine Mammal Center on Saturday, Sept. 15, 9-10:30 a.m. The activity includes a docent tour of the Center, and a close up view of live sea lions. Following the tour, participants will study [...]
Ill Prepared Hiker Rescued from Hillside
A sheriff’s helicopter was used to extract a hiker who suffered an anxiety attack and was unable to move from a steep trail in Laguna Beach’s open space about 6 p.m. Sunday, June 9, police said. Lifeguards in an all-terrain vehicle coordinated the extraction from thick brush and a steep slope between Alta Laguna Park [...]
