Editor,
I’m an artist. I have a studio in my home at 20358 Sun Valley Dr. since 1974. I taught at the Laguna College of Art, have shown my work at the Laguna Art Museum and am actively exhibiting my work
in Orange County, Los Angeles, and elsewhere in the U.S. and abroad.
Although I support artist live-work, I oppose this project because it is too big and at the wrong location. It will greatly impact the character of the canyon, and have a great impact on the Sun Valley neighborhood.
Affordable studios for this city is an important objective and worthy of creative thinking and planning. Artists in our community certainly need to be nurtured and encouraged. If Laguna Beach leaders want to continue to develop the city as an artist community, it is important to engage planners and creative thinkers in making Laguna Beach a community in which there are affordable studios. These studios can be located in a variety of places rather than concentrating them in one big building. It’s time to put some quality thinking, planning and looking at what benefits the artist community and Laguna Beach community without impacting one particular neighborhood.
I want the City Council, city planners and other city leaders to develop a comprehensive plan. This project, at this location, at this size, is short-sighted. It is wrong for the Sun Valley neighborhood. It is wrong as a feature in the canyon. The city can do much better than this.
I hope the Council will please consider scaling the project to the original concept that the developer proposed to the neighborhood two years ago. That plan had a half-dozen or so units and would be in the best interests of the Laguna Canyon neighbors and of Laguna Beach.
Barbara Berk, Laguna Beach
