On Nov. 3, our neighbor in Alta Vista banged on our windows. Her house was on fire. it could have become the next Laguna Beach Fire. Our neighborhood sits atop a purple zone canyon designated as Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zone. Several like it haven’t been mitigated on Mayor Kempf’s, and City Manager Shohreh Dupuis’s watch. Laguna Beach Fire Department came up Alta Vista Way in less than four minutes. We witnessed the work of world-class firefighters. Operations Chief Api Weinert, Captain Danny Kalscheuer and his crew are angels. Our tiny street makes getting any trucks through entry a challenge. The night before, we had 20 mph winds. Our city was lucky the embers didn’t hit our homes and that purple zone. LBFD put that fire to sleep like a baby. We never saw it. It was magical, paced, methodical, coordinated like a perfect ballet.
Our City and Design Review Board (DRB) ignored fire safety questions for a property to go 40 yards into that purple zone at the end of our street. We asked why the project received California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) exemption, and how a project like it could ever be considered. The DRB had no comment in the hearing. I submitted documents to the City in January, The City invalidated the exemption agreeing to initiate CEQA review If the applicant returns. This project would require an Environmental Impact Report in any other city. On this council watch, CEQA training for city staff and DRB was voted on and never completed. 98 of 100 DRB-approved projects in Laguna have been granted exemptions without knowledge of the law. We believe many are illegal.
Based on FBI crime data LB has a crime rate higher than 59 percent of our state’s cities and towns of all sizes. 42 calls were made to LBPD from 10/16-10/18, 2022, nine were reported as violent crimes according to Ring neighborhood report. We heard today LBPD is losing another three department employees. The cited reason is the city manager’s interference of work.
Our future is tourism, not extremism. The price of Dupuis’ politics is vigilance. We are a destination, not an experiment. Tourists aren’t coming when the police are leaving. Tourists don’t flock here for crime, developers, Kempf, or Dupuis. Let our cops do their jobs – if they still want them.
Tony Fisch, Laguna Beach
