Laguna Canyon Road

. FOR THE RECORD: The first paragraph in the Jan. 15 article ?Familiar face lost? should have referred to Charles Reginald Conwell.. . Two memorial services will be held this weekend for Charles Reginald ?Cowboy? Conway, who died Saturday after being hit by a minivan on Laguna Canyon Road. The Rev. Bob Moore of the Neighborhood Congregations Church will conduct a service at 9 a.m. Saturday in Heisler Park for the homeless population, of which Conwell was one of the most recognizable.

Mayor Pro Tem Cheryl Kinsman was shocked to learn that Laguna Canyon Road is not a state-designated scenic highway, considering it cuts through regional wilderness parks and a canyon the community has made great efforts to preserve from development. The City Council unanimously supported Kinsman’s proposal to explore the process and implications of the state designation. A portion of the 133 is a county-designated Scenic Highway and viewscape corridor, although the date of the designation is somewhat hazy.

A proposed live-work project on Laguna Canyon Road is still too big, too overwhelming and not in character with the surroundings, city planning commissioners said once again. The Commission reiterated at the Sept. 24 meeting its previous advice that the 31-unit project presented for Laguna L.P. doesn’t fit the site at 725 Laguna Canyon Road, across from the Festival of Arts Grounds. The commission recommendations included a reduction in size and number of units that are affordable — and more of them than the 25% required — and a project more in character with the scale of other buildings and the streetscape on Laguna Canyon Road.

Starting Saturday, park visitors will have a new portal to the vast wilderness system in South Orange County. The James and Rosemary Nix Nature Center, 18751 Laguna Canyon Road, will open to the public daily beginning at 9 a.m. Saturday. The center is located at the crossroads of the 20,000-acre South Coast Wilderness system of parks and preserves, and includes extensive interpretive exhibits to aid visitors' appreciation for the coastal canyons environment, history and culture.

Nine people were taken to the hospital after two vehicles broadsided an out-of-control cement truck on Laguna Canyon Road at the 73 Toll Road interchange late Friday morning, Laguna Beach Police Sgt. Jeff Calvert said. No fatalities are expected from the incident, which closed Laguna Canyon Road in both directions for hours. The road reopened at 3 p.m. The cement truck, three-quarters full of cement, apparently lost its brakes coming down the southbound exit ramp and collided with two passenger vehicles.

Summer crowds heading for Laguna Beach's art festivals will be able to park in a little more style this season. The Act V parking lot on the north side of Laguna Canyon Road between the Day Labor Center and Laguna College of Art and Design is newly renovated and improved to give visitors a convenient place to park. The lot, which will open Tuesday, can hold 264 vehicles including seven handicapped accessible spaces. It has a strip of paved stalls which will be reserved for employees working in the City Yard when it's completed on the site.

Three cottages slated for demolition got a new lease on life Tuesday. The City Council granted a reprieve for the cottages when last-minute offers were submitted to move them from a city-owned parcel at Big Bend to private property and restore them, just as the temporary use permit for the relocation was due to expire. The cottages had languished at Big Bend since they were relocated in March 2007 from Third Street to make way for the Community/Senior Center. “Needless to say, I am thrilled — speaking for myself and I am sure the Heritage Committee will be, too,” committee member Bonnie Hano said.

Fifth District Supervisor Tom Wilson wore a big smile as he wielded big ceremonial scissors at the Laguna Canyon Road ribbon-cutting ceremony Wednesday. County officials and stakeholders in the road project celebrated the conclusion of the project, which realigned 3.9 miles of the highway from the toll road to I-4-5, added another lane in each direction (north- and south-bound lanes to be separated by landscaping), on-road bike lanes, an improved the entrance to Nix Nature Center in the Laguna Coast Wilderness Park, and constructed water quality basins and bridges at key points over the road, which was moved from between the two natural lakes in the Laguna Canyon.

It's been nearly a year since the vibrant Laguna College of Art & Design mural along Laguna Canyon Road was painted gray by the building's tenant. Since then, LCAD mural instructor Mia Tavanotti has been hard at work, brainstorming and creating the Power of Words Project , which allowed residents to vote on a word that would inspire a new mural. On Saturday, Tavanotti stood alongside students, Mayor Jane Egly and State Sen. Curren Price (D-Los Angeles) during a ribbon-cutting ceremony that revealed the winning word: "wonder.