Historic Preservation Litigation Moves Forward

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The petitioners’ lawyer is Susan Brandt-Hawley, the foremost CEQA attorney for cases involving historic resources. CEQA lawsuits are usually addressed rather speedily. There is no trial; instead, briefs are filed by attorneys on both sides based on the administrative record (AR), which comprises all of the evidence presented up to and including the final public hearing on the matter. The AR can, in complicated cases, amount to tens of thousands of pages and take a long time to prepare. The AR was recently certified in the Coastal Commission case on the ordinance and Land Use Element, and we expect that case will be decided before the end of June. It will be heard in the Superior Court, San Diego County. Laguna Beach is still laboring over the AR in the Historic Resources Element case, but it should be completed soon. The judge in that case is William Claster in Orange County.

Despite the litigation, Laguna Beach’s new preservation policies have gone into effect, with devastating consequences for some historic resources. Last year the City Council approved plans to strip all character-defining features from a French Revival historic home, including half-timbering, hand-troweled stucco, original windows, and a beautiful front retaining wall made of San Onofre breccia—a stone that is native to Laguna Beach. The City did not require a historic resources analysis even though the property was identified as a historic resource. In addition, the City Council approved an application to demolish a historic 1920s Beach Cottage, even though an architectural historian hired by the owner found that the property continued to meet objective criteria to qualify as a locally significant historic resource. However, the property owner did not want the property to be historic. The residence has since been demolished. These are not isolated cases. The Laguna Beach Historic Preservation Coalition sought an injunction to prevent further demolition and substantial alteration of identified historic properties listed on the Inventory without environmental review, but unfortunately the judge denied the request. The Coalition continues to identify and object to threatened demolitions of local historic resources on a case-by-case basis, but we are hopeful that we will prevail in our lawsuit, and the City will be forced to suspend its policies.

By Cathy Jurca

1902 Ocean, Laguna Beach. In 2023, Laguna Beach City Council approved plans to remove half-timbering, hand-troweled stucco, and original windows from the French Revival historic residence.

Although it was found to be locally historic by an historical consultant, this 1920s beach cottage in Laguna Beach was permitted to be demolished in 2023.