Laguna Beach Historic American Landscape
UPDATE: June 22, 2022
As a result of the direction taken by the California Coastal Commission in support of the amendments to the City of Laguna Beach’s Local Coastal Plan (LCP) and Downtown Specific Plan (DSP), the Laguna Beach Historic Preservation Coalition filed a second lawsuit on June 6, this time against the Coastal Commission for violating the California Environmental Quality Act and the Coastal Act. Coalition attorney Susan Brandt-Hawley summarizes the violation in the introduction to the petition:
“Bowing to property owners’ demands to alter or replace historic buildings with those of ever-greater mass and scale, the LCP amendments decree owner consent as a prerequisite to identifying and protecting local historic resources. Such consent is irrelevant to historic merit, and now hundreds of City-identified historic resources rich with California character will be newly at risk of substantial alteration or demolition.”(2)
The coalition’s original plan in 2020 was to file suit against the City for all the changes City Council approved to the historic preservation program including the Historic Preservation Ordinance, the Historic Resources Element, the Design Guidelines, etc. However, a recent appeals court decision clarified that the coalition could only bring suit against the City for the Historic Resources Element because everything else requires the approval of the Coastal Commission. They, not the City, are the decision-making body. The suit against the Coastal Commission will be heard in San Francisco, where the commission is headquartered. The City of Laguna Beach is a “real party in interest” to the suit.
The first lawsuit filed in January 2021 against the City of Laguna Beach for changes to the Historic Resources Element of the General Plan was placed on hold by the Orange County Superior Court while awaiting final certification by the California Coastal Commission which is expected in July.
The coalition has raised $20,000 of a $50,000 goal to cover legal costs associated with the Coastal Commission petition. Please consider donating any amount. Preserve Orange County will provide you with a tax receipt to the maximum extent allowed by law. Click here to donate, and thank you!
LBHPC vs. California Coastal Commission petition
UPDATE: February 11, 2022
On February 10, 2022, the California Coastal Commission voted 8-2 to certify the City of Laguna Beach changes to its historic preservation program. In response to the significant threat to historic resources posed by the changes, voluminous public comments in opposition to the changes were submitted by residents of Laguna Beach and the county as well as local, regional, and national groups such as Fullerton Heritage, the Corona Del Mar Historical Society, the Coalition to Protect Mariner’s Mile, the California Cultural Resources Preservation Alliance, Old Towne Preservation Association, Los Angeles Conservancy, Save Our Heritage Organization (San Diego), Docomomo SoCal, San Francisco Heritage, California Preservation Foundation and the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Preserve Orange County board members and members of the Laguna Beach Historic Preservation Coalition also gave testimony at the hearing.
As a result of the Commission’s decision, the lawsuit launched against the City of Laguna Beach in 2021 by Preserve Orange County and the Laguna Beach Historic Preservation Coalition will now proceed. For more information about the lawsuit, scroll down to the January 15, 2021 update found on this page.
Please consider donating to the lawsuit fund. Donations are tax-deductible to the maximum extent permitted by law. Donate here.
January 22, 2022: URGENT ACTION NEEDED
On February 10th, the California Coastal Commission will consider whether to approve devastating changes to Laguna Beach’s historic preservation program. The City Council approved the changes in 2020, over significant community opposition, but they cannot go into effect without Coastal Commission certification.
Laguna’s preservation program is forty years old and unusually robust within Orange County. It provides protections for hundreds of identified historic resources and also protects historic resources that have not been surveyed if evidence indicates that they are historic. Under the new program, for the first time historic preservation would become voluntary. An owner would have to consent before the city would even consider if a property is a locally significant historic resource when approving demolition or substantial alterations. Development projects involving the vast majority of historic properties in the city would trigger no environmental review or special design consideration.
How You Can Help
We ask you to support the residents and organizations who cherish Laguna’s historic fabric by writing the Commission to request they reject the proposed changes. Remember the Coastal Commission, unlike Laguna’s City Council, cares about what the public wants for its coast. You can refer to the sample letter below and email your comments to lagunabeachhpc@gmail.com. We will forward them to the Coastal Commission. If you wish to send your comments directly, email them to SouthCoast@coastal.ca.gov and please make sure they are sent before Friday, February 4 at 5 pm.
Laguna attracts six million visitors a year, and many of you will have spent time there. If so, we encourage you to share with the Coastal Commission something about what Laguna’s historic fabric means to you.
See below for the history of our advocacy for a strong historic preservation program in Laguna Beach and for more detail about the coalition’s position, please see the letter addressed to Coastal Commission staff in September 2021, hyperlinked below.
The photographs below show a handful of buildings at risk. For more information about the scope of historic resources at risk, please scroll down to the Historic American Landscape Survey document that was completed for Laguna Beach in 2016.
Please contact Catherine Jurca at lagunabeachhpc@gmail.com for questions or more information.
Sample Letter to California Coastal Commission
Coalition Letter to Coastal Commission Staff, September 16, 2021
Commission Staff Report, January 21, 2022
Coalition Letter in Response to January 21, 2022 Staff Report, January 28, 2022
Laguna Beach- including its built and natural environments- has been recognized by the National Park Service as an Historic American Landscape (HALS), the only one documented in Orange County. The nomination document can be viewed and downloaded here: HALS- National Park Service- Laguna Beach. The nominating committee also produced a book in 2017, “Laguna Beach and the Greenbelt: Celebrating a Treasured Historic American Landscape” which can be purchased from bookstores.
According to the National Park Service, historic landscapes like Laguna’s are “important touchstones of national, regional and local identity. They foster a sense of community and place. Historic landscapes are also fragile places. They are affected by the forces of nature, and by commercial and residential development, vandalism and neglect…”
UPDATE: JANUARY 15, 2021
A coalition of local preservation groups including Preserve Orange County filed a petition on January 11, 2021 with the Orange County Superior Court against the City of Laguna Beach. In the brief we contend that the City’s amendments to its historic preservation program-- and specifically the codification of a voluntary program without first conducting a full environmental review (EIR)-- are a violation of the California Environmental Quality Act.
The coalition is represented by attorney, Susan Brandt-Hawley. If you wish to support this important legal action, please make a tax deductible donation to the legal fund, administered by Preserve Orange County, a registered tax-exempt charity. By clicking the button below, you will land on the coalition’s Go Fund Me page. 100 percent of money raised will go to the legal fund.
UPDATE: JULY 16, 2020
In a 4-1 vote on July 14, 2020, Laguna Beach City Council approved the Negative Declaration and the changes to the City’s General Plan and Historic Preservation Ordinance. The consequences of the vote mean that the inventory of historic resources will be expunged, and many historic properties will lose protection. Unless a property is currently on the California Register of Historical Resources or is currently on a list of eligible National Register properties, the owner of a locally significant property has exclusive authority to decide in the future if that property is historic or not. This leaves eligible historic resources vulnerable to insensitive alteration and demolition. The City has also abdicated its right to conduct future surveys of historic resources for its own planning purposes. It is thus patently false that these changes will not adversely affect historic resources in Laguna Beach. Only a full environmental review (an Environmental Impact Report) would expose the action for what it is.
Public opposition to the changes was significant. Many of those who gave testimony were opposed and according to a council member, close to 200 letters were received in advance of the meeting. The council's decision was made on shaky legal grounds and the public's opposition to the changes will matter when the issue is addressed at the Coastal Commission and/or in litigation. To all those organizations and individuals from throughout Orange County and the region who responded, thank you so much.
UPDATE: JUNE 30, 2020
The City of Laguna Beach and the environmental consultant, VCS Environmental delivered their report in December 2019. The report found that the City does not need to conduct a full Environmental Impact Report (EIR) because the changes proposed do not adversely impact historic resources. A coalition of residents and community groups including Preserve Orange County strongly disagrees with this finding and is challenging it. City Council meets on July 14, 2020 to consider adoption of the environmental report (known as a “Negative Declaration”) and approval of the proposed changes to the Historic Preservation Ordinance, General Plan and Municipal Code which- while retaining the financial incentives to encourage owners to nominate their property to the local register- would dramatically reverse the city’s ability to protect historic resources.
We encourage the preservation community and the general public to support concerned residents and groups in Laguna Beach by urging the Laguna Beach City Council to reject the proposed changes before the July 14 meeting. You may use the sample letter below and email, CityCouncil@lagunabeachcity.net , and please cc. lshel@lagunabeachcity.net. Let them know how much you enjoy the aesthetics of the historic beach village of Laguna Beach!
REFERENCE DOCUMENTS:
VCS Environmental “Negative Declaration,” December 2019.
City of Laguna Beach Notice of Intent to Adopt a Negative Declaration
The buildings and houses in the photographs below are a sampling of the hundreds of historic resources in Laguna Beach that are not currently listed on local, state or national registers. If the city goes through with its plans to reverse its historic preservation program and render it completely voluntary, and unless these buildings get listed, they will be vulnerable to insensitive alteration or demolition. Photographs courtesy of Cathy Jurca, Greg O’Loughlin and Ann Christoph.
BACKGROUND: JULY 2019 BY Catherine Jurca
Founded in 1887 and incorporated in 1927, Laguna Beach faces the loss of robust protections and thus hundreds of historic resources that for almost forty years have helped this former artist colony preserve its unique historic character.
Recognized as a Historic American Landscape by the National Park Service in 2017, Laguna Beach was once proactive in historic preservation. The City commissioned a Historic Resource Inventory in 1981, which identified over 800 historic properties developed before 1940, including 42 found eligible for the National Register. In 1983 the City Council adopted a Historic Resources Element as part of the General Plan, which celebrated Laguna’s historic buildings and made their preservation a major component of its local planning process. Currently there are more than 300 historic properties designated in the Laguna Beach Historic Register. Owners of historic properties are eligible for substantial benefits including the Mills Act and reduced parking requirements.
Unfortunately, virtually all historic resources in Laguna Beach are now under threat. The City Council proposes to rewrite the City’s General Plan and Municipal Code to make historic preservation almost entirely voluntary. Against the advice of its own City Attorney and Preserve Orange County, the Council decided last year that under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), a local government is only required to treat a property as a historic resource if it is formally designated on the National Register of Historic Places or the California Register of Historical Resources. Some Council members have expressed a desire to allow owners to remove their historic properties from the local Register for any reason, which would mean all but a few properties in Laguna could be demolished or substantially altered—even those whose owners signed a recorded agreement to preserve them—without environmental review under CEQA.
Laguna’s preservation program does have problems. Its Historic Preservation Ordinance is not well written and requires updating. Planning staff lack expertise in historic buildings and have often imposed inflexible requirements on owners of historic resources, while not taking advantage of opportunities such as use of the California Historic Building Code. This has alienated some owners of historic properties.
Village Laguna and the Laguna Beach Preservation Coalition have worked to fix these problems. So far they have not succeeded in persuading the City Council that its proposed course of action is far too extreme and contrary not only to CEQA but also to the best interests of the community. For more information on these efforts, click here http://www.villagelaguna.org/historic-preservation.
Fortunately, the proposed changes to the General Plan and Municipal Code must themselves undergo environmental review under CEQA, because they would certainly result in substantial adverse change to the significance of numerous historic resources, which is considered a significant effect on the environment. The City is in the process of hiring a consultant to assist with the environmental review process. Preservation advocates are awaiting these next steps, while trying to mobilize opposition to these destructive changes and ensure that the City follows a proper review process for properties currently still considered historic.