Who Wants Hotel Laguna Closed?
Laguna’s most iconic structure is Hotel Laguna. It was first built around 1880 and made of wood, but burned down then finally rebuilt of concrete and finished in 1930. That is what you see today.
Over the years, the hotel interior was often remodeled, but its essence did not change. There is an extensive lobby, common area, restaurant, and an outside bar/restaurant next to the beach. There also was a private roped-off area on the beach where you could sit on a beach chair and sip a drink; today it is a “grandfathered” amenity.
The hotel rooms are barely big enough for a single bed and bathroom—but to thousands of vacationers, wonderfully adjacent to the ocean and affordable.
A few years ago a friend asked me to host a meal at the Hotel for two young women visiting from Afghanistan who had never seen an ocean. We escorted them to the outside restaurant that had steps to the beach. The two young women were wearing the traditional Muslim garb, but shucked their shoes, hiked up their skirts and scampered screaming with joy through the shore break.
It was magic.
Now Hotel Laguna has been closed for five years and is a rotting eyesore. This has destroyed Laguna’s most important tourist attraction and harmed all the downtown businesses, resulting in the closure of numerous adjacent stores and restaurants.
It is Laguna’s singularly most public embarrassment/failure and begs the obvious question: why can’t Laguna get its act together and get the hotel open?
The current owner, Mo Honarkar, is an incredibly controversial figure and hated by many—often for good reason. But he is in the midst of reopening the common areas and this is not about him. It is about reopening Hotel Laguna for the sake of all of Laguna.
The other day I toured those common areas. The results are spectacular. The renovation has uncovered gorgeous architectural details, which now are carefully refurbished. The public lobby has true-to-original 1930s-themed features. It flows to the remodeled restaurants, bars, outdoors restaurant/bars, beach sitting area—also reopening the “basement” facility we’ve all used for weddings, recitals and community meetings—and even its covered-up ceilings and walls have been revealed and lovingly restored.
This brings me to Village Laguna. It is trying as hard as possible to stop the reopening of Hotel Laguna. Mayor Bob Whalen accused its two acolytes on the City Council, Toni Iseman and George Weiss, of revealing information from a closed session City Council meeting to a person they thought would stop the reopening. Iseman and Weiss know revealing closed session Council information is illegal. The City Council then voted to censure Weiss.
At a subsequent City Council meeting to determine whether to censure Iseman and Weiss, one Village Laguna member after another spoke on their behalf. Killing any reopening of Hotel Laguna was not only fine with them; it is part of their agenda.
The basic question is why? Why so much effort expended to kill something so important to all of Laguna? The answer is simple: Village Laguna has spent so much effort demonizing the owner that allowing even one “win” is abhorrent to their cause. That Hotel Laguna is the City’s singular iconic structure and tourist draw does not matter.
In short, by its very actions, Village Laguna clearly demonstrates its own agenda—to them—is more important than all else. This includes reopening our town’s most beloved symbol. It is stupendously malignant.
Shame on them.
Michael is a Laguna Beach resident and principal officer of Laguna Forward PAC.
Michael you clearly have lost your mind in your white heat hatred of Village Laguna. You and your crew have entirely missed the point about the Hotel Laguna. It is not about wanting to see it closed or not wanting to give Mo a “win” (which is the most absurd thing I’ve ever heard). It’s about getting the right permits, doing only the work you are permitted for and the sleazy back room preferential treatment the City Staff is giving this one developer. Do you think Coast Inn got this kind of favoritism bestowed on them?? Shame on you that you condone these kinds of business practices.
Although I’m not a member of VL, I trust their intentions in calling for the City to follow its own mandates in approving remodels of any structure, and for issuing TUPs or CUPs. And in ensuring public participation in the decisions about the hotel’s future. Unfortunately what we’ve been seeing through the drama at City Council meetings is that this particular developer (MH) has been receiving preferential treatment by the City. Mr. Ray’s characterization of VL in the matter is extremely biased and unfair, in my opinion.
Developers hate regulations like crooks hate cops.
And Michael Ray is no exception.
Purposefully conflating the opening of the Hotel Laguna with the corrupt preferential treatment of its renovation shows a clear distain for the rule of law and equal treatment for all.
It appears that in his playbook, there shouldn’t be any plans, permits or inspections for developers . . . everyone else, get in line.
And he makes out that those who were transparent and who revealed all the illegal, back room, secret, double dealings by three City Council members are the villains here. Never mind the fact that all three of those City Council members’ candidacies received financial backing from Mr. Ray’s pro-development political action committee – Liberate Laguna. (Liberate it from what – all rules, height limits, parking issues, density requirements, use permits, regulations, codes, inspections and ordinances?)
Just as repulsive and disgusting is his continuous, tedious bludgeonings of Village Laguna – his go-to boogeyman punching bag for everything evil since the Bubonic Plague. (He left out blaming it for Covid.) So much of what is unique, charming and special about Laguna Beach can be directly attributed to Village Laguna’s great works over the past 50 years. (And no – I’m not a member.)
I ask, who made Michael Ray the arbiter of what’s good for all of Laguna Beach?
Clearly, he’s got a dog in the hunt. And it sure doesn’t mean well for the Laguna most residents know and love.
Michael Ray, you are the poster child of propagating politically motivated misinformation. Although I am a proud board member of Village Laguna I am writing this response as a concerned resident of Laguna Beach. Your assertion that Village Laguna does not want the Hotel Laguna to be reopened is a patent lie and you know it unless you can name a Village Laguna member that does not want our crown jewel to be reopened. What we and most of the residents as well as the Director of Community Development wanted was for the developer to follow the proper procedures that we who do not have city council members beholden to us must do. But what we have gotten instead is a renovation that does not even have a plan much less a plan approved by the Panning Commission. Instead we have the three developer Laguna/Laguna Forward council members and the city manager in the words of Marc Weiner “bend over backwards” and give the developer after the fact permits.
If it is a fact that the developer removed a load bearing beam and then had to replace it with the city’s approval the city is, in my view, legally liable should a structural failure occur that is even remotely related to the removal of that beam. Problems such as these are not caused by Village Laguna much as you and the rest of the Liberate Laguna/Laguna Forward group would wish it were so. You would be closer to the truth is my opinion, if you were to hypothesize that the developer had a period of severe financial problems when many if not most of his numerous companies were under the control of a court appointed receiver and thus did everything in his power to open the ground floor of hotel Laguna to generate revenue including disregarding the rules the rest of us mortals must adhere to. But like your protege and by your own words “mentor for your children”, Peter Blake, truth does not seem to matter. And so you and your minions will keep trying to vilify an organization that with other such civic minded groups has kept Laguna beach from becoming a Huntingon Beach or Dana Point. Like the sports world would say “Cm’on Man!”
Re: RAY PAC ATTACK. Once again the Indy is going out of its way to give Liberate Laguna Forward (? really) PAC Founder Michael Ray an opportunity to whine and point fingers at everyone but Mr. Honarker who is directly responsible for all of the delays in completing the renovation and reopening of the Hotel Laguna.
Ray’s statement regarding it being a public embarrassment is correct – but the question he asks is incorrect. It should read: why can’t MO HONARKER get HIS act together and get the hotel open?
Shame on Ray for trying to pin Mr. Honarker’s ignorance, arrogance and inability to play by the rules of our town on anyone else, especially VL. Quite frankly, his constant obsession with VL in his column is kinda creepy. INDY – spare your readers and don’t feed this type of politically motivated and obsessive behavior. It certainly does not fall under the entertaining market of ideas you profess to provide. Thank you.