By Michael Morris
It’s no secret that many developers and business interests are spending lots of dollars to defeat the Laguna Residents First Ballot Initiative (BI); the only insurance policy that gives residents the right to vote on intensified or new large commercial projects in Laguna Beach.
To that end, much misinformation has been disseminated. The misinformation campaign suggests progress would grind to a halt and voters would be subjected to endless special elections. That is false based on other cities’ experience with similar measures and based on the ability of developers to adapt to reasonable boundaries. It is also false due to discretionary powers built into the ballot initiative. Here are three key facts to set the record straight:
Fiction: Parking requirements would be rigid and untenable.
Fact: Parking requirements are clearer with some discretion afforded to the Planning Commission.
The BI gives discretion to the Planning Commission in the area of parking. The Commission is empowered under the BI to grant historical, sidewalk, and grandfathered credits which haven’t been claimed prior to Dec. 31, 2020, provided that commensurate public benefit can be demonstrated and it can be shown that there is no impact to parking and noise in adjoining neighborhoods. Such determination may be appealed.
Also, the Director of Community Development is empowered to determine the “reasonably necessary number of parking spaces” for business-types that are not explicitly enumerated. The Director is to apply the parking requirements of the use-type that most closely matches the one being considered.
Fiction: Building height variances even for standard roof-top items would require a vote.
Fact: The BI grants discretion in the area of building height maximums for certain rooftop items.
There is discretion granted to the Design Review Board (DRB) in the area of building height. The BI states, “the following items may be permitted to a height in excess of that permitted within a zone in the BLOZD when approved by the DRB; structures for the sole purposes of housing elevators, stairways, tanks, ventilating fans or similar equipment.”
Fiction: New or intensified projects that create 200 or more average daily vehicle trips would require a vote.
Fact: The BI only cares about projects that increase daily trips by 200 or more but gives discretion to the Director of Community Development.
Some discretion is granted to the Director of Community Development when a project is trying to qualify as “minor modification of a major development project”. In the area of Average Daily Trips, one of the criteria of being a “minor modification” is that it “does not worsen traffic by causing more than a negligible increase in average daily trips, as determined by the Director upon consideration of the specific use of the modification”. This discretionary determination can help a small project avoid triggering a vote by being deemed a “minor modification”.
The drafters of the LRF Ballot Initiative recognize that the best smart-growth measure is one that encourages commercial progress in-line with resident interests, while not placing a burden on city staff or voters. Granting of discretion to the Planning Commission, Design Review Board, or city staff helps to achieve this goal.
Michael, a Laguna homeowner, is a founder and former treasurer of Laguna Residents First PAC. He previously served a one-year term on the Orange County Grand Jury and as an appointed trustee to the Orange County Vector Control District.
See http://www.LagunaResidentsFirst.org for information on the ballot initiative including Frequently Asked Questions, and the opportunity to volunteer or donate.
The anti-initiative political action committee founder Sam Goldstein wrote a letter to this newspaper which included ““Gene Felder attacked me again and several other residents for making political contributions to a local PAC. He claimed that my donations were to make ‘big developments easier by changing long-established city standards.’ His only proof: I secured land use entitlements to make the “E” Rated Historic Heisler Building ADA accessible.” That is I was correct when in my letter I noted “Sam Goldstein has secured land use entitlements to the Heisler Building including a rooftop deck that to be ADA accessible allowed an elevator exceeding the City’s 36-foot height limit.”
In my letter, I also noted “The Liberate Laguna 2018 financial disclosure statement details $152,000 of expenditures in getting Peter Blake and Sue Kempf elected to the city council. The top contributors were: Cindy Shopoff, Shopoff Reality Enterprises ($68,000), Michael and Leslie Ray, Sanderson/Ray Developers ($27,000), Mohammad Honarkar, 4GWireless ($20,000), Samuel Goldstein, Radford Ventures ($20,000), and Chris Dornin, Dornin Investment ($10,000).” Astute letter readers will note that Mr. Goldstein did not refute this information. In addition, the Liberate Laguna 2020 financial disclosure statement details $102,000 of expenditures with the top contributors being Michael Ray $57,000, Sam Goldstein $28,000, and Cindy Shopoff $18,500.
So in the last two City elections their donations to the Liberate Laguna political action committee were Michael Ray $84,000, Cindy Shopoff $86,500, and Sam Goldstein $48,000 consisting of over 86% of the total raised.
In his letter Sam Goldstein writes: “Here’s another attack on me that Gene Felder wrote in StuNews March 9, 2021: “One wonders what vision and development plans Sam Goldstein has for Laguna Beach; in his testimony he described our beloved Laguna Beach as a ‘dying, decaying, totally fragmented city right now with most of our businesses closed.’ Yikes!’ Gene, I wonder what you have done with your life in Laguna?”
It is untrue when Mr. Goldstein says Laguna Beach is a “dying, decaying, totally fragmented city right now with most of our businesses closed”, well, at least hyperbolic.
Mike, thank you for this information and clarification.
This statement: “The drafters of the LRF Ballot Initiative recognize that the best smart-growth measure is one that encourages commercial progress in-line with resident interests, while not placing a burden on city staff or voters. Granting of discretion to the Planning Commission, Design Review Board, or city staff helps to achieve this goal.” shows just how important it is to LRF to bring Laguna stakeholders together for the benefit of our city and it’s future.
This is what we all should be working towards. Thank you.
Just look at who the activists behind this initiative are and ask yourself if these are the people you want dictating your future?
Gene Felder? The decades-long Village Laguna activist? He and his wife are two of the most ruthless oppressors imaginable. Just read his comments above. He’s implying that Liberate Laguna bought my seat when he knows damn well that I earned my votes. I fought him and exposed his gang of authoritarians for our well-deserved property rights. This hypocrite lives in a huge home built and approved with variances years ago when Village Laguna ruled DRB with an iron fist. They’re the reason for our decrepit downtown and these transient coddlers would have had us looking like Venice or Santa Monica had I not put a stop to their social experiments.
Michael Morris is nothing more than George Weiss’s lapdog. Look at the photo above. Is he inspiring? He’s Laguna Residents First’s fact spinner. He has zero vision for the future. He and Dave Raber are the “brains” (lol) of the operation. Raber’s a guy who’s been fighting to put a pathway in between some property owners’ homes for decades and wants the City to spend hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars to do so in order for a few of his friends to have a “shortcut” The City has abandoned 3 of the 4 water and utility easements but he just won’t give up on this one. He and his fellow activists are battling an elder woman who’s lost her privacy over nothing more than a political arm-wrestling match.
Then there’s the political predator MJ Abraham. This radical leftist used to be the Director of the Riverside City College Center for Social Justice & Civil Liberties. She and her bestie Michelle Monda spew hate in this publication and on Nextdoor all day. They’re wanna be king-makers who are trying to gain control of the Dais and City Hall and will slander anyone they have to in order to get what they want. These pathetic, full-time complainers write smart but are some of the dumbest people you’ll ever meet. Get in their way and watch the mud come hurling at you. Monda lives in a McMansion on a pastoral lot shared by three homes complete with a gate to keep everyone out. She hired a consultant to get every inch she could but claims she moved to Laguna because it’s small and she wants to “keep it that way” Typical Laguna Residents First hypocrite.
So do any of these underwhelming activists truly inspire you? We put them to bed in 2018 yet they refuse to go away. They will not rest until they’ve regained power. This initiative is an attempt to usurp the will of the voters in this community who want a voice and aren’t willing to listen to these fools any longer. Between now and November 8th they will stop at nothing to win the election and imprison us with their BS initiative.
We’re not falling for it!
Peter, Peter, Peter. Character assassination, name calling and insults are the hallmarks of not only a bully but someone who knows the facts are not on their side. Deflecting from reality much? Why do you resort to these sordid tactics instead of countering the facts of the Ballot Initiative with your own set of facts? Because you know you and your merry band of Liberate Laguna Forward developers are on the wrong side of what residents want to see for their town. If you are so enamored with development and newness, may I invite you to relocate to Dana Point or Newport Beach. You know, the towns you keep wanting Laguna to become. Please leave our town the charming, quirky, small town it is and do your insulting somewhere else. Your infantile tirades are tiresome and repetitive.