The Laguna Beach City Council called last week for the release of environmental studies completed in conjunction with the downtown specific plan.
The council also directed staff to move ahead with the specific plan’s update that focuses on housing opportunities in the arts district — the boundary for which extends out into the canyon near the Boys & Girls Club — while also exploring adaptive reuse of existing buildings for residential purposes.
The panel voted unanimously to share the technical studies with the public at a meeting on July 21, after Senate Bill 131 created an exemption for qualifying zoning amendments that implement commitments made within an approved housing element.
The streamlining of business permits and updates to commercial development standards were incorporated into the downtown specific plan during the first phase of work. A second phase focused on housing-related matters, such as building heights, parking standards and residential density, and included programming to identify opportunities to increase housing supply.
City staff said during the meeting that an environmental impact report being prepared for the second phase had reached a “screen check-ready draft,” or administrative review stage, but did not recommend further expenditure of city resources, including staff time, in pursuit of a report that was no longer required.
Community Development Director Matthew Schneider said staff is “actively working” on a general plan update, which will include work for the seventh cycle housing element. While the current cycle runs through 2029, Schneider said there is an opportunity to take a step back and consider the downtown specific plan in concert with the seventh cycle to “take a more holistic approach.”
“I want to be really clear that we’re not suggesting that residential housing is not appropriate downtown,” Schneider said. “In fact, we think all areas of the city need to be contemplated, and it’s very likely that density will need to be placed there, but we could look at it in a more thoughtful way, and the amount of density could ultimately shift.”
Continuing to study the downtown specific plan, “in a broader context,” would allow the city to remain in compliance with its housing element, Schneider added.
Councilman Alex Rounaghi, concerned about the potential for the Builder’s Remedy provision of the state’s Housing Accountability Act, which exempts qualifying projects from being subject to local zoning and development standards if a city fails to adopt a state-approved housing element, emphasized the need to plan proper places as residential sites.
“We could continue to make efforts to change the law and advocate for carve-outs related to high fire severity zone, coastal zone, things like that, all the things that we should be doing,” Rounaghi said. “But we also, I think, should be figuring out where do we put the housing in the places where it makes the most sense, where it doesn’t undermine the character of the community, and where it to the extent possible minimizes public safety impacts.”
The few that spoke during the public hearing urged the council to make the information compiled through the environmental impact report public.
“I just find it not very feasible to say that you’re proceeding with the downtown specific plan, but you’re halting the EIR,” said Ann Christoph, a former mayor, who added that residents would still have questions about impacts to residential density, evacuation and parking“… All these things are supposed to be addressed in this document. I think just because you don’t have to do an EIR doesn’t mean we shouldn’t finish what we started.”
Others speaking during public comment raised the possibility of as many as 600 residential units being built in the downtown area.
Rounaghi said there was no intent to build “a really crazy high number of units” in the downtown, adding the figure only came into play as the city analyzed “alternatives” through the [California Environmental Quality Act] process.”
“I certainly am not interested in seeing anything close to 600 housing units in the downtown area of Laguna,” Mayor Pro Tem Hallie Jones said. “I just don’t think that’s feasible or desirable.”
The council also directed staff to work on strategies to have the unique issues of the community, including those tied to wildfire risks, addressed via advocacy at the state level.
“We understand Sacramento has laid out one-size-fits-all regulations that make it difficult for communities like Laguna to comply with, as far as meeting their housing goals,” Mayor Mark Orgill said. “There are conversations being had and doors being cracked open to further some of our ideas, … talking about our environmental resources, our fire mitigation, emergency evacuation, and other issues that we have in town.”