By Jackie Connor, Special to the Independent
Despite some dissent, Laguna Beach City Council agreed to a final plan from April to November to move the $2.7 million Forest Avenue Promenade project toward a more permanent state at their regular meeting on Tuesday.
However, some council members expressed concerns about the level of community involvement and a lack of data-driven decisions.
The plan, presented by the new Promenade ad hoc committee of Mayor Sue Kempf and Councilmember Mark Orgill, will focus on securing the project as a permanent pedestrian plaza.
“Our effort and intent when we put this [the plan] together was to provide the community with as much detail as possible…and make sure at this juncture, that the community was going to be included,” said Orgill.
The ad hoc committee’s proposed scope involves collaborating with various stakeholders, including community members, city staff and consultants via workshops, focus groups and economic analyses, as well as working with government agencies such as the California Coastal Commission and the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC) beginning June 2024.
“One of the tricky parts of this [plan] was when we would have community workshops,” said Kempf. “We want to make sure that when we have community workshops, we have concrete things to share.”
Kempf described an example of concrete constraint discussion items like street foundational infrastructure in addition to forming a design that would meet ABC’s requirements.
While initially considering a design competition, Kempf and Orgill agreed to work with Laguna Beach design firm SWA Group on an existing on-call services contract for up to $30,000, which quickly raised concerns about fairness and the selection process.
“I don’t see ‘resident’ in here at all,” said Councilmember George Weiss, referring to the Promenade Ad Hoc Committee Work Plan. “You may have addressed it in your comments, but why it is not in the staff report is really funky…the first process is to engage the public because they’re the biggest stakeholder.”
Residents shared varying opinions, with some strongly favoring the Promenade but advocating for the ad hoc committee to be more inclusive of the community. Others wanted more concrete data to understand the project beyond the economic benefits. Some residents were in favor of holding a design competition, with one resident describing their planning commission experience as “a complete waste of time.” In contrast, others described the potential to improve its current state, highlighting the economic boon for some businesses located around the Promenade due to the shift over the past four years.
“The current version for me is far too dedicated to a few restaurants and too many tables, fences, tents…that interrupt the flow and general vibe of the block,” said Mark Christy, Laguna Beach resident and owner of The Ranch at Laguna Beach resort. “On a scale from one-to-10, it’s currently a two or three, but I know we can make it a 10 with great design…it should look like it’s been there for 100 years.”
In addition, several residents voiced their concerns about the community’s lack of involvement in committees and focus groups. Most residents want the committee to have thoughtful consideration when designing the Promenade with its historic component remaining intact.
“Where are the qualified residents on any committee or focus group where the real input/decisions will be made? You’ve certainly got the focus groups covered with self-interested parties like the Chamber of Commerce, Visit Laguna Beach, architects, etc. What about the residents who will be paying for this?” said resident Michèle Monda. “Who’s looking out for our interest? This town is teeming with experts qualified to make reasoned decisions…how many from your ‘focus groups’ live here and care the way residents do?”
Created out of a need to serve the public during the pandemic, the historic Forest Avenue Promenade has since become a semi-permanent fixture for residents and tourists to partake in traffic-free shopping and dining. It has stirred much debate over its permanence. As the city moves forward with its plan to gather more data on the Promenade’s benefits and drawbacks, residents aim to find a voice among those involved in the committee’s focus groups and analyses.
LBCC: “Full speed ahead and damn the torpedoes,” i.e., ignore all of those discouraging words of opposition and community dissent at the hearing.
Poker Tell #1: The constituents named to the Ad Hoc Committee (AHC), fixing the endgame by picking the team and vendors.
Poker Tell #2: Did anyone explain that under The Brown Act (TBA), many communications between agencies like the ABC and the AHC members might not be subject to public disclosure? And isn’t the signaled intent by Kempf obvious, more alcohol consumption (more profits for a select few businesses), perhaps expanded into the entire area with unsupervised, under age kids present instead of being constrained/restricted to adult occupied zones?
Poker Tell #3: According to online research, TBA does NOT apply to AHCs when only 2 LBCC members are on it.
Poker Tell #4: The other 3 LBCC members can attend AHC meetings but only as observers seated among the public, they CANNOT ask questions or make statements.
I’d encourage residents to look up all of the things that will/will not be allowed by the AHC, things that we’ll either never know or find much out about……including meeting protocols, notifications, attendance, side bars and transparency, go online and read TBA critics regarding AHC.
Lack of accountability is one glaring objection, that and lack of public activist oversight/scrutiny…….and of course conflicts of interest, unethical behavior occurs but is veiled.
Much of the AHC dynamics under TBA which MUST be followed, or conversely can be hidden/obscured, haven’t been explained.
Both as an activist of 26 years duration and as a vendor/consultant myself for many years, my observations have led me to realize that AHCs can be mechanisms for burying issues until the governing body reports in open session at the AHCs sunset. The pre-determined has ripened, ready for approval.
By then it might be too late to derail or avoid the thinly veiled agenda embedded in this AHCs very creation, as a circumventing input mechanism, not as an inclusionary device.
Q.: Does the City have best practice, clear and precise guidelines for AHCs, for management and outcome evaluations?
The 4 LBCC members have already telegraphed their exclusive, elitist goals anyway.
It continues to amaze me that they believe that cramming, corralling a few hundred people (tourists and residents) more into a block will somehow, like alchemy, magically, synthetically create a sense of community.
Add caffeine to get them jolted or wired early am, alcohol to medicate themselves at lunch into the night, seems like superficial downtown stimulation, things urban citizens embrace.
Those of us who have lived here, availed and immersed ourselves in the ENTIRE natural environs for many years have an intrinsic bent, our inner core, spiritual participation values led us to already feel part of the greater whole: Community.
This LBCC is extrinsic, material, and oblivious to our history.
“Manufacturing community” is an oxymoronic strategy: Ersatz Laguna.
One either feels a part of Laguna or one doesn’t.
Obviously, those 4 LBCC don’t get that, in a sense, they must feel like outsiders themselves.
I attended Tuesday’s CC meeting and spoke to this Trojan Horse. The purpose of a Promenade was to reduce LB downtown traffic intensity by offering an alternative to automobile parking and traffic, same purpose as the previous Parklet experiments on Laguna Avenue and lower Forest. Without meeting alternative mobility we must meet the Coastal Commission mandate to provice replacement parking for spaces taken by the Promenade.
Had the Planning Commission listened to consultants we could have had a Budapest Fussgaegerzone, instead we got a Trojan horse corral making some excluded retail business owners angry. What are the functional requirements for a Promenade? Did we record business receipts, traffic counts, visitor counts? Nope. Opponents reminisce about missing parking revenue, so what are the requirements for a successful Promenade? What does success look like, that’s why you make a list before you go shopping.