BARBARA DIAMOND
We've had a week to digest our Thanksgiving dinners, eat the
leftovers and reflect on how lucky we are to live in Laguna.
Now it's time to talk turkeys. Here are a few to chew on.
CAN'T SEE THE HEDGES FOR THE TREES: First the views, privacy is
the major concern of neighbors of a proposed remodel or new home
construction.
The Design Review Board takes those concerns seriously, relocating
windows or decks on a project to preserve seclusion. Yet, the City
Council voted to strip residents' privacy from the view of passing
strangers by limiting the height of hedges to four feet, the same
height as front yard fences, reasoning that hedges blocked views and
were unfriendly.
However, the council took revisions to the toothless tree
ordinance off the Planning Commission work list, advising supporters
of a stronger ordinance to put it on the ballot to gauge public
support.
Trees failed to make the cut. Hedges still must be.
PRESERVATION: The owners of historically registered homes are
given incentives -- variances from the standard code, in return for
keeping the historical integrity of the structure.
Doesn't always work. The council overturned a stop-work order on a
registered home, which the owner was siding with faux wood.
Historical integrity? Excuse me.
"It was a flagrant violation of a commitment to the city and the
heritage status was, at the least morally abused," said Councilman
Wayne Baglin, the lone council opponent of the reversal."
Even more abusive: preservation ordinance guidelines that conflict
that conflict with other ordinances that govern development.
"We have no decision-making powers what-so-ever," Heritage
Committee member Molly Bing said.
The committee is supporting revisions to the Preservation
Ordinance that extends its powers.
THE SKATEBOARD PARK RUN-AROUND: YMCA proposed building and
maintaining a first-class skateboard park in Laguna Beach, if the
city would provide the land. The city welcomed the proposition and
after much debate settled on the Act V parking lot in Laguna Canyon.
Local attorney, Larry Nokes, YMCA's spokesman, was told to bring a
solid proposal to the council. Plans were underway, when Nokes was
told that Act V was not available after all, to accept the Bark Park
as an alternative to no Skateboard Park -- and that site was
approved.
YMCA went back to the drawing board, but dog lovers and rational
people who know that dogs and skateboards are incompatible,
prevailed. The City Council suggested that Big Bend would be better,
