By Megan Miller, Special to the Independent
The Laguna Beach City Council is set to mull an agreement with Laguna Presbyterian Church on Tuesday for use of a lot at Third Street.
The item is slated for the May 10 meeting and could pave the way for the City to use properties at 355, 395, 361 and 363 Third St. across from the Susi Q Senior Center. While not a formal contract lease, the Memorandum of Understanding would set in motion a plan to add 90 spaces within a multi-level structure on a lot that currently hosts about 35 spaces, Mayor Pro Tem Bob Whalen said Tuesday.
Ed Sauls, a church volunteer who worked closely with Whalen on negotiations, estimated the structure would cost the City around $10 million. Per the ground lease agreement, the church would be paid about 2% of the annual gross revenue for the first two years, around 10% for the next 20 years and 20% for the remainder of the 50-year term.
“The church and the City didn’t approach this as a financial investment priority,” Sauls said. “We really approached it as providing a benefit of parking for the community and the church.”
Parking solutions have been debated for years with little progress beyond the completion of the Village Entrance. Councilmembers expect to see architectural and financing plans for a structure at that site this year.
A city council-commissioned survey distributed late last year revealed that 57% of business owners supported city efforts to build new parking spaces. A related resident survey found 74% of respondents support creating a master parking plan.
In March, Whalen and Mayor Sue Kempf formed a council subcommittee in March to further address the City’s parking concerns. Last week, councilmembers approved a lease with Hometown America Communities for the lot at 30802 Coast Hwy. The deal was born out of the subcommittee talks and will add 52 public parking spaces as early as the summer.
However the agreement between City Council and Laguna Presbyterian precedes the subcommittee, Whalen said. The “on and off discussions” with the church and church committees reflect years of negotiations that were spearheaded by Whalen and Councilmember Peter Blake, resulting in a nearly 50-year agreement.
Village Laguna has not taken a position yet but is interested in learning more about the agreement’s terms, Board President Anne Caenn said.
“It’s concerning we’re not getting more information prior to them making this commitment,” Caenn said.
Some argue a downtown parking structure won’t fix the congested parking along the coast, as day-trippers and beachgoers may continue to prefer residential parking for its close proximity to the ocean.
Plans to build a parking structure on the land are tentative and still subject to the City’s rigorous design review process, Whalen said.
Bait & Switch, pure and simple: Who in their right mind believes that government capital improvement projects come in on budget?
Often contingency plans allot a 25% range of added flexibility—–Which whattyaknow, whattyasay, now we’re up to $12.5 million. At least.
And think how joyous that area will be during construction, with outright stoppages/no thru traffic and the inevitable commuter delays, etc.?
These are the same brain dead officials who took a lot more than 55 parking spaces much closer in proximity and more convenient to locals and visitors alike via parklets to accommodate a few restaurants/bars.
Now WE, the residents/taxpayers are going to be forced to make up for those parklets, underwrite commerce, pay for those lost spaces. And our migration to or thru town more difficult.
As for traffic circulation, we have yet to observe a full summer post-Covid.
The closing of Forest will likely dislocate a lot of vehicles, they’ll re-route themselves in a disorganized, random and unpredictable way, and Glenneyre will become a driver’s nightmare——–and won’t a multi-story structure create queuing during high season?
3rd Street hill is right there, a cut through/round about now used more often due to the Forest closure.
Savvy drivers going north go upstream, now turn around Legion and thus burden that zone as like fish, they attempt to find passage to 3rd. Which will if this obscenity is built, become crazy busy.
Stress…that’s what’s on the horizon.
Vehicular and psychological.
All due to the worship of commerce.
What of the recent INDEPENDENT survey of downtown parking that surmised that THERE IS ENOUGH PARKING and actually UNDERUSED parking downtown?
Let’s toss out some of the EMPTY ‘parklet’ tables and chairs first, maybe lease the ground of the church parking for daily metered parking and promote the use of the Village Entrance (beautifully designed) parking before building an EYESORE of a empty not financially feasible structure.
BTW adding a parking structure does not ease the squeeze of endless cars careening thru the canyon and bouncing off electrical poles……
As for that “rigorous” DRB & probably Planning commission review? FOFLOL.
The same CC majority that starts backroom wheeling and dealing in stealth anoints these committee/commission members. “Years of negotiations?” FOFLOL Part Deux.
I wrote ANOINT because it’s extension of the nepotistic patronage system: The winners reward their sycophants.
I’m still on the bubble regarding the Initiative in November, but understanding how the system can be rigged to facilitate/green light variances, re-zoning, bogus mitigations, developer-friendly EIRs, amended specific plans, etc., the noted oversight can be manipulated only as rigorously as a function of those in power who cut orders for their minions of darkness.
Punishment for breaking ranks? Ex-communication, you’re not re-annointed unless you toe the line.
Initially these members are pawns, but eventually use the system to position themselves for Council seats……..Sic transit gloria mundi Laguna.
If you live above Glenneyre and use Legion, Park, and/or circulating adjacent, cross streets below the High School, your neighborhood will become part of the sacrificial lamb, in the summer afternoons traffic hostages.
And more gridlock equals poorer air quality.
Look for the Suzi Q Center to keep their windows closed to protect the seniors having already compromised lung issues.
I’m surprised the city hasn’t hired an another “Outside consultant” for $350,000 to “study” this topic for two years.
Hey Laguna you have enough parking , your trouble is you accommodate too many cars. Why? Because your municipal code is 50 years out of date. The head-scratchers downtown still think 6.5 million visitors and residents can be hidden in parking structures if we build them fast enough, this time it’s under a church. https://lagunastreets.blogspot.com/2012/03/civic-groups-are-diversion.html
Mr. Schraff:
Thank you for reminding us regarding a better strategy, which should be to manage existing spaces, of which there are in adequate numbers.
This site would be yet another exemplary waste of our precious coffers, and part of the slippery slope, future mindset of the present Council: Subsidize and accommodate bars and restaurants.
And it seems difficult to get the City to address the cascading, domino effect of altered traffic circulation patterns.
Downtown was always a gauntlet for locals during high season, but alterations also effect visitors. Using modern phone apps, navigational decisions and burdens will change in real time, hence a certain element of flux.
Residents will be the ones dominantly “fluxed.”
Instead City staff time (years of it) was spent……and with a hefty debt tag at the finish line?
As Aldous Huxley uttered: “Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.”
Gaining 55 spaces that as you also astutely noted will display empty stalls over 75% of the year defines fiscal unfeasibility and imprudence.