City Council Wildfire Mitigation Subcommittee releases Fire Safety Plan to protect Laguna

The Laguna Beach City Council Wildfire Mitigation and Fire Safety Subcommittee has released its report identifying and prioritizing additional programs, mitigation measures, staffing, and equipment needed to reduce the current level of high fire risk and exposure to wildfires in Laguna Beach. For a detailed copy of the Subcommittee’s report, click here. 

“Wildfires present one of the biggest risks to public safety in the City,” said Laguna Beach Mayor Bob Whalen. “While we can’t eliminate the risk of wildfires, we can take some meaningful steps to reduce our risks. This report contains a number of practical suggestions that if implemented will go a long way to improving public safety and protecting lives.”

In December 2018, the City Council approved the formation of the Wildfire Mitigation and Fire Safety Subcommittee, comprised of Laguna Beach Mayor Bob Whalen and City Council member Sue Kempf. The Subcommittee began its work with the City Manager and other staff to assess the City’s current level of risk and exposure to wildfires, identify and prioritize additional programs, mitigation measures, and identify a funding plan needed to further reduce the risk of loss of life and property damage from wildfires.

Nearly all of the City of Laguna Beach and its surrounding 16,000 acres of open space are designated by CalFire as a Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zone. This designation underscores the significant wildfire risk in the City. The City has a hilly terrain, significant vegetation that is fuel for wildfires, and is subject to hot, dry summer and fall seasons, and high‐speed Santa Ana winds. These conditions are frequently involved in the most destructive fires in the region. Due to these conditions in the natural environment, the City has a history of wildfires, the most devastating of which occurred in 1993 when Laguna Beach was struck by a Santa Ana wind‐driven fire that consumed over 14,000 acres, caused the evacuation of over 23,000 people, and destroyed 441 homes and structures in less than a day. The City also experienced wildfires in 2015 and 2018, which started in the open space. 

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Submitted photo

2018 Aliso Fire below Top of the World

Though the City has taken numerous fire mitigation steps since the 1993 fire, the risk created by the natural environment is compounded by certain physical constraints and limitations in the City including limited evacuation routes, overhead utilities, impaired access areas, older buildings, and the impact of visitors complicating an evacuation.

The Subcommittee gathered information from other wildfires and was briefed by experts regarding wildfire risks and responses in the State, including touring the City of Paradise, which was destroyed by a wind-driven fire that killed 85 people in November 2018. The Subcommittee also received a briefing on the Woolsey Fire that also occurred in November 2018 in the Malibu area, which burned 97,000 acres and destroyed 1,643 structures. City staff also attended the Governor’s Emergency Management Summit in Sacramento in June. which helped frame certain analysis and possible recommendations in the Subcommittee’s report.

“Over the last seven months, Mayor Whalen and I have worked with the City’s executive management team and staff from key departments, representatives from the Laguna Beach Water and South Coast Water Districts, California legislators, and representatives from various municipalities to craft a plan of action for Laguna Beach,” said City Council and Subcommittee member Sue Kempf. “We look forward to presenting our findings and recommendations at the upcoming July 23 City Council meeting.”

The report contains 47 possible actions to be taken to mitigate the risk of a wildfire occurring in the City and to minimize the impact should one occur. Short-term (one - two years) priorities identified in the Subcommittee’s report include improving the City’s public evacuation process by developing an evacuation modeling study, creating an interactive GPS evacuation map, installing evacuation signage, and an evacuation traffic signal priority system. Improving the City’s emergency notification systems by installing a City-wide outdoor warning system and a neighborhood outreach system are also identified as priorities in the report. 

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Air drop on Aliso Fire 

Other short-term priorities include continuing to eliminate the risks associated with overhead utilities by undergrounding remaining areas along Coast Highway and areas of Bluebird Canyon Drive, and additional vegetation management in the Bluebird Canyon area. Improving fire resistive infrastructure, the City’s emergency communication systems, and expanding and maintaining the City’s defensible space are also short-term priorities. There are substantial existing local funding sources sufficient to fund all of the proposed short-term mitigation measures, estimated at $22.9 million, and also fund portions of the medium-term measures.

In the medium term (three ‐ five years), the Subcommittee recommends completing fuel modification zones in the City and improving wildfire resistance of existing residences. The estimated funding needed for these items is $9.4 million, some of which can come from existing City funding sources but will also require funding from future grants. Long-term priorities include further undergrounding of utilities on Laguna Canyon Road, undergrounding throughout the City by neighborhood assessment districts, and increasing the capacity of South Coast Water District reservoirs. Funding for long=term priorities will vary depending on grants or other sources of local, state or utility company funds.   

“If the Council adopts the Subcommittee’s recommendations, we will immediately begin implementing over $20 million of short-term actions by committing certain existing revenues over the next three years which is great news for our community,” Whalen said. “The medium term and long-term recommendations will require us to identify new grants and revenue sources. If Council accepts the recommendations from the Subcommittee, we will go to work to pursue additional funding.”

The Subcommittee will present its recommendations identifying and prioritizing additional programs, mitigation measures, staffing, and equipment needed to reduce the current level of high fire risk and exposure to wildfires in Laguna Beach and funding solutions outlined in the report to the City Council for consideration on July 23. The Draft Agenda Bill for the July 23 City Council meeting can be found by clicking here.

City Manager’s Updates

Wildfire Mitigation City Council Subcommittee Releases Fire Safety Plan – The Laguna Beach City Council Wildfire Mitigation and Fire Safety Subcommittee has released its report identifying and prioritizing additional programs, mitigation measures, staffing, and equipment needed to reduce the current level of high fire risk and exposure to wildfires in Laguna Beach. 

A detailed copy of the Subcommittee’s report can be found here. This item will be presented to the City Council at its regularly scheduled meeting on July 23, 2019.

Laguna Beach’s Ocean Water Quality Among State’s Cleanest – Laguna Beach’s Victoria Beach is one of 33 California beaches named to this year’s Heal the Bay Honor Roll, a list of locations that scored perfect A+ grades for water quality each week in all seasons and all-weather conditions. To make the list, a beach must be monitored year-round. Heal the Bay gives A-F letter grades to beaches based on levels of weekly bacteria measurements by county health agencies. 

Only 33 of 500 beaches earned an honor spot on the list. The City of Laguna Beach continues to dedicate significant resources and effort to prevent urban runoff pollution from ever reaching the ocean. The City’s Water Quality Department staff removes an average of eight tons of debris and sediment annually from 17 of the City’s urban water diversions. Remaining street pollution is captured before it reaches the beach and is sent to the sanitary sewer system for treatment.

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Photo by Mary Hurlbut

Victoria Beach is among the state’s cleanest beaches by water quality

Junior Lifeguards – Registration for Session 2 of the 2019 Junior Lifeguard Program is still open. Session 2 begins on Monday, July 15. Participants must pass the required swim test or have participated in the 2018 Program to be eligible to register. The last swim tests for this year will be held on Friday, July 12, from 6 to 7:30 p.m. and Saturday, July 13, from 1 to 3 p.m. at the Laguna Beach High School Community Pool, located at 670 Park Ave. Registrations for Session 2 will also be taken on-site at the pool. 

Additional information about the Junior Lifeguard Program is available at http://bit.ly/2RAlQcl or by calling (949) 497-0788. 

SCE Pole Replacements – Southern California Edison (SCE) will be working in three areas of town next week. 

For questions or concerns, contact SCE’s Customer Service number at (800) 655-4555.

1850 Glenneyre Street – On Monday, July 15, between 9 a.m. and 7 p.m., SCE will be replacing a utility pole located at 1850 Glenneyre St. Traffic lanes at Glenneyre Street will be maintained, but shifted, in the vicinity of the work between Pearl Street and Center Street.

320 Legion Street – On Tuesday, July 16, between 2:30 a.m. and 6:30 a.m., SCE will be replacing a utility pole located at 320 Legion St. The work is being performed during the night due to an outage associated with the pole replacement which will affect commercial customers in the vicinity. Portions of Goff Street, both north and south of Legion Street, will be closed during the work. Traffic control and detour signs will be posted alerting residents of the temporary road closure.

501 Lombardy Lane – On Thursday, July 18, between 9 a.m. and 6 p.m., SCE will be replacing two utility poles located near 501 Lombardy Ln. Lombardy Lane will be closed from Anita Street to approximately 250 feet southwest of Wilson Street during the work. Traffic control signs will be posted alerting residents of the temporary road closure.

Council okays development deal

By BARBARA DIAMOND

The City Council approved at 1:10 a.m. on Wednesday morning a memo of understanding with property owner Mo Honarkar, an initial step in the review of six major developments he has on the drawing board. 

More than 20 speakers from the tired and cranky audience had waited as the council plowed through 18 items on the agenda before it reached the proposed MOU at midnight. Furthering the discontent was the one-minute limit imposed on the speakers due to the late hour and the number who wanted their turn at the microphone.

“This was just wrong,” said Laguna Beach businesswoman Heidi Miller. “It was so unfair after we had been sitting all night to limit us to one minute. I had been waiting to speak for six and a half hours.” 

The agenda item was a rerun of proposals already approved by the council, except for a clarification of the responsibilities to be undertaken by Mayor Bob Whalen and Councilwoman Sue Kempf, appointed by the council as Ad Hoc Committee in April. At the same meeting, the council authorized City Manager John Pietig to retain consultant Elisa Stipkovich, retired Executive Director of Community Development for the City of Anaheim. Pietig was also authorized to secure the legal services of Rutan and Tucker’s Bill Ihrke; to make use of Keyser Marston on an as-needed basis to assist in economic evaluations and financial issues related to the hotel projects and public benefits; to negotiate and implement agreements to recover from Laguna Beach Company 100 percent of costs of the city’s consultants and legal fees; and to establish a system to recover all city development-related costs to process the proposed projects.    

“This [Tuesday’s meeting] is just a clarification of what the council had already approved,” said Whalen.

The stated purpose of the proposed MOU is to help inform the public of the significant projects that will require formal city and possibly California Coastal Commission reviews and that will benefit from broad public awareness and meaningful public participation. 

“This is still in the early conceptual stage,” said Pietig. “There are a lot of moving parts.” 

The MOU will also serve as a non-binding outline of potential projects identified by the company for development.

Identified projects: 

--Cleo Hotel – replacing existing Holiday Inn at the intersection of Cleo Street and South Coast Hwy 

--Hotel Laguna – historic restoration 

--Central Bluff – mixed-use project south of the Hotel Laguna to Legion Street 

--Museum Hotel – ocean side of the highway between Jasmine Street and Cliff Drive 

--Canyon Acres – multi-unit housing on Canyon Acres Drive in Laguna Canyon

--The Hive – reconfiguring of the former Bartlett Center and Art-A-Fair/Laguna College of Art and Design properties

Honarkar has indicated he will submit concepts of all but The Hive for review by July 30. 

“Why are we having this discussion,” demanded Councilman Peter Blake. “We had already named the Ad Hoc Committee. Let’s just move ahead.”

That did not sit well with the audience, which had already had some less than cordial exchanges with Blake on other items on the agenda.

Representatives of Village Laguna, often at loggerheads with Blake, presented a list of five items of concern including public benefits, impacts of the developments, impacts on staff and the Planning Commission, alternative proposals and the powers of the ad hoc committee. 

The letter to the council, read aloud at the hearing, also included a suggestion to spread out the development over a period of several years. 

“Six projects all by one developer; I am getting a bad feeling,” said Armando Baez.   

Councilwoman Toni Iseman also expressed concerns about the cumulative effect of the project and asked why the projects couldn’t be developed one at a time. 

“We don’t even know if that has been decided,” said Pietig. 

Iseman was also concerned about transparency.

Monthly updates by the ad hoc committee or Pietig on the status of the various projects and opportunities for public input, inclusion of meeting information in the City Manager’s weekly updates to council and media was the only staff recommendation that Iseman approved.

Staff also recommended and council approved 4-1, Iseman opposed, authorizing the ad hoc committee to identify potential conditions of development to be evaluated by staff and to discuss the terms of any agreements to be entered into with the developer; to participate in meetings of staff, developer and company consultants; to identify and discuss potential conditions and terms of any agreements; and to report periodically to the council on the status of projects.

The ad hoc committee is prohibited from making formal recommendations to the council. Information shall be shared with other council members only at properly noticed public meetings. The committee is scheduled to sunset by July 31, 2020.

Following concept reviews, and when formal applications are submitted, the projects will be reviewed for compliance with the city’s General Plan, Local Coastal Plan, zoning and other codes and the California Environmental Quality Act. Planning Commission hearings will be scheduled. Appeals of commission decisions would be heard by the City Council and/or the Coastal Commission.

Laguna Beach Chamber of Commerce brings back Annual Golf Tournament

The Laguna Beach Chamber of Commerce brought back its much beloved Annual Golf Tournament, presented by Tropare’ Inc., on Monday, July 1, at the Aliso Viejo Country Club. 

One hundred and twenty golfers participated in 18 holes of golf, raising funds for the Chamber of Commerce to continue to support and advocate for our businesses and community in Laguna Beach.

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120 golfers played 18 holes of golf on July 1 to raise funds for the Chamber of Commerce, which supports local businesses

Tournament participants enjoyed a variety of competitions in addition to 18 holes of scramble golf tournament play. Activities included men’s and women’s Longest Drive, Closest to the Pin competitions, a $5,000 Mega, $100,000 Shootout competition, and a Hole-In-One to win an Audi. Participants also challenged local golf pro Barbara Williams in “Beat the Pro.”

“Wow, what a great day!” said Executive Director Paula Hornbuckle-Arnold. “Our board members J.J. Ballesteros and Julie Laughton combined sold 13 foursomes and secured a VIP Custom Corporate Sponsor. We are incredibly grateful to Tropare’ Inc. for signing on early and making the decision to bring the tournament back an easy one.”

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Council member Sue Kempf (left) and Larry Nokes (second from right) with teammates at the tournament, which Nokes & Quinn Lawyers sponsored

“It was great to see participation from so many people in our community including one of our council members, firefighters, and many more. I believe all our players and sponsors saw value in what was a fun and well ran tournament. I look forward to an even bigger tournament in 2020,” said Chamber President J.J. Ballesteros. 

The Chamber thanks the sponsors who helped make the golf tournament an exciting and successful fundraising event: 

--Presenting Sponsor: Tropare’ Inc.

--VIP Custom Corporate Sponsors: Renaissance Club Sport Aliso Viejo, Bomel Construction, and Davis Toft Law

--Birdie Sponsor: Jaguar Land Rover Mission Viejo

Council to consider changes to city’s design review process

By BARBARA DIAMOND

The City Council will consider changes tonight in the Design Review Ordinance recommended by the Planning Commission that are expected to reduce complaints about the process. 

Proposed changes include transferring review of all non-residential and Community Improvement Projects from the Design Review Board to the Planning Commission, reducing the number of days from 28 to 14 for required staking that lets neighbors know the proposed height of a project, and omitting the board from administrative design review appeals, which if approved, would go straight to council.

The proposed changes would be made in phases, according to the staff report. 

Phase one amendments would also address the proposed administrative approval of pool/spa and air conditioning units and restating the revocation process.

The board does not support all of the recommended changes. 

In a memorandum to the council, the board opined that it had increased the number of staking days from 10 to 28 because neighbors of projects complained that they did not have sufficient time to view the staking prior to the public hearing on the project. The board also challenged the wisdom of moving all Community Improvement Projects to the commission, particularly those adjacent to residential zones. 

The memo stated that the board is more familiar than the commission with residential issues – view obstruction and privacy being major issues. 

Staff supports the changes as a means of streamlining the review process, which has been criticized as too lengthy and too costly.

At one time, the board met weekly to keep up with the projects being proposed and the number of hearings on a project was not limited. Concept hearings were routine. 

Design Review reform has been on the table since the November election, when Peter Blake made it central to his campaign for a seat on the City Council.

He maintained that property rights were being eroded and architects forced to make “blah” designs to get projects approved. 

“Who are they (DRB) to tell anyone what to do with their property?” was practically his mantra.

In one unprecedented exchange, Blake suggested that the board members should voluntarily vacate their seats. 

The board members declined, but presented the council with some recommendations, including better public communication – which was not incorporated into the proposed changes.