Judge Lets Stand Laguna Limit on Artist Housing

An Orange County Superior Court judge on Monday let stand a disputed Laguna Beach City Council decision limiting the number of units in a proposed housing project for local artists.

Judge William F. McDonald denied an artist group’s attempt to overturn the city’s May 20 action reducing the number of units in the “live/work” condo project from 14 to 11. Depicted as a move to provide affordable housing to working artists, the Laguna Canyon project would be the first of its kind in Orange County.

Representatives of the 12-artist group argued that having fewer than 14 units would not be economically feasible and that 14 are permitted under a 1986 city law allowing such projects.

But when the project came before the City Council last May, the council voted 3-2 for the 11-unit limit. Residents near the condo site said the project would generate increased traffic and have other higher-density impacts.

The suit was filed in August by Vernon Spitaleri, owner of a long-vacant one-acre site at Laguna Canyon Road and Canyon Acres Drive.

In the original 14-unit, $1.3-million plan, the artists envisioned units that ranged in size from 780 to 1,200 square feet. The units would serve as residential and work-studio spaces for painters, sculptors and ceramists.