Laguna Agrees to Krishna Use of Main Beach; Sect to Drop Suit

Facing a court battle with the local Hare Krishna chapter, the Laguna Beach City Council has voted to allow the sect to set up booths at Main Beach once a year.

In return, the Krishnas agreed to dismiss their lawsuit against the city.

The council gave initial approval Tuesday night to an ordinance that will allow the Krishnas, as well as other groups and individuals, to erect booths in the cobblestone area at the south end of Main Beach in downtown Laguna once a year for a maximum of two days, City Manager Kenneth C. Frank said.

If it wins final approval at the next council meeting, as expected, the ordinance will mean that the local chapter of the International Society of Krishna Consciousness can hold its Festival of India, which includes exhibits and photographic displays, in the spring. Last year, barred from Main Beach, the chapter canceled the festival rather than seek another location.

Under the new ordinance, any individual or group may erect a booth for cultural or “constitutionally protected expressive activities” in the cobblestone area for a maximum of two days in a calendar year. No two groups will be allowed there at the same time, and the area cannot be used for such activities more than five days in any month.

“I don’t know if I consider it a victory, but the city has finally adopted a proposal we made two years ago. It’s a victory for everybody: for the Krishnas and for the community,” said David Liberman, an attorney for the Krishnas.

As soon as the council gives final approval to the ordinance, Liberman said, he will seek dismissal of the lawsuit the Krishnas filed on May 5, 1986, challenging the city’s restrictions on setting up booths in city parks.

“Nobody knows (whether Laguna Beach would have lost the lawsuit) because the area of First Amendment rights, as it pertains to public places, is still in a state of flux. There is no case like ours,” Frank said. “Nobody knew what would happen.”

In the suit, filed in federal court in Los Angeles, the group says Laguna Beach’s ordinance forbidding groups from setting up tables, booths or any other structures for events in the city’s parks violated the group’s constitutional rights to freedom of religion and equal protection.

Although the controversial ordinance was not adopted until March of last year, on a 3-2 vote, the city had a longstanding policy banning structures on Main Beach, Frank said.

“The council generally wants to keep structures off Main Beach,” Frank said. “The council has very jealously protected that view. It’s called the Window to the Sea.”