I support the Laguna Residents First ballot initiative to require a vote of the people if business development fails to meet the city’s current requirements, such as parking. Former Mayor Elizabeth Pearson does not and attacks naysayers in her recent Indy Guest Opinion.
Pearson writes an interesting history of the Montage development which excludes some key facts.
She claims the naysayers created a more virulent atmosphere than today. That is because to get the land for the Montage, homeowners had to be kicked out of their homes. The site was the Treasure Island mobile home park which was one of the largest lower cost housing communities in Laguna Beach at the time. The homeowner owned their home, but the mobile home was not very mobile, and the property owner owned the land. Probably some folks were bitter.
Pearson does mention twice that naysayers had some good ideas that improved the project. It is thanks to the naysayers that we have a hotel, a public bluff-top park, easy beach access with a nearby public parking structure.
I am told by Laguna Residents First that about one percent of the people asked to sign the ballot initiative responded saying “let the developer do anything they want to do”. At Treasure Island, the initial proposal by the developer was 100% luxury residential lots. City Manager Ken Frank reported that the tax revenue to the City would be superior if there was a hotel. He was right; prior to the pandemic, hotel bed taxes to the City were $4 million a year. Naysayers push for the public benefits. Thank God for the Montage, and that we did not let the developer do whatever he wanted to do.
If you are not scared enough then let the developer do anything they want, see aoarchitects.com/project/hotel-laguna. At the website for Architects Orange, they show artist conception of a Rodeo Drive style Hotel Laguna complex down to and past Legion Street on the central bluffs. AO Architects claims to be the architect of record for the Hotel Laguna, but I understand this vision has been removed at this time. But it does show what developers would do if the naysayers did not love and were not willing to fight to save Laguna Beach from overdevelopment.
Sincerely,
Charlotte Masarik, Laguna Beach
