El Morro tenants should be ashamed El...

El Morro tenants should be ashamed

El Morro tenants have known since 1979 that the Irvine Company had

sold the property to the state and that they must move when their

leases expired in 1999. After complaining, they got five more years,

until Dec. 31 of last year. Now they defy the law and the promises

made to the public to leave on time, and are being evicted.

If the Irvine Company had not sold the land to the state 25 years

ago, the trailers would be long gone by now. Enjoying below market

rents all these years, they should count their blessings and get out.

Instead, they have hired flaks of all kinds to raise spurious

issues such as barbecue smoke from a public campground harming El

Morro school children, child molesters running at large, harm to the

snowy plover shorebird if they move and now have gotten last minute

legislation from their assemblyman after they showered him with

campaign contributions.

They deserve shame, not sympathy.

EDWARD MERRILEES

Laguna Beach

DeVore plan

misses the mark

You published Chuck DeVore’s defense of his proposed giveaway of

the public’s right to use El Morro under the title, “El Morro plan

makes fiscal sense.” Nonsense. According to DeVore, “This money can

be taken in the form of a $50-million cash payment or as an annual

revenue stream of $3.2 million for up to 30 years.” Let’s look at the

$50-million option.

Divide $50 million by 30 years and divide that by the roughly 300

spaces at El Morro. What do you get per month? $463. DeVore proposes

to sell off the right to use each space for the next 30 years for

$463 per space per month! He calls this “fiscal discipline and

creativity.” He starts off by saying, “Your editorial of Feb. 18

entitled ‘Plan hurts the public’ misses the mark entirely.” Actually,

it’s DeVore’s response that misses the mark entirely. Your editorial

was right on target.

STAN FRYMAN

Laguna Beach

Parks not for generating revenues

I just read Assemblyman Chuck DeVore’s “Sounding off” regarding El

Morro. It is really sad to think that he represents the coastal area

of South County. You would hope that elected representatives would be

protecting the coast for the public’s benefit. Especially the coast

that is publicly owned.

The idea that we should give exclusive use of prime public coast

land to help balance the state budget is ridiculous. And to make

matters worse, he is challenging his colleges to do the same thing.

It is scary to think what that the state park system would be if his

idea catches on.

When the state bought Crystal Cove State park in 1979 for more

than $30 million, it was so that all Californians could use enjoy it.

It was not acquired to generate revenue. It is time for El Morro to

be put to full public use. That is what we paid for and that is what

we should get.

MIKE FENDERSON

Laguna Beach

Medievalism

visits City Hall

It is embarrassing to point out the obvious, but what is one to do

when our City Council has decided to evoke the fundamentalist anthem

of dehumanization, the celebration of faith over reason.

When the council members decided that nudity in art would

desecrate civic property they spoke more about themselves than

representing our collective opinion ... at least mine. They have

issues that best be dealt with behind closed doors.

During the golden moments of classical humanism, nude images

graced the public squares (let’s not forget the architectural

interiors as well) of ancient Greece/Rome and Renaissance Italy.

To this day millions of tourists have gazed upon this nude art

without suffering an epidemic of warts or a decline in moral

turpitude. Rather, the time-honored works of such respected artists

as Pericles, Donatello, Michelangelo, etc. have embodied the hopes

and aspirations of their times; marked the progress of Western

civilization; as well as, exalted the human condition. Even as we

speak there are many art school curriculums that continue this

humanist legacy. Our own Laguna Canyon is dotted with the work of

young Michelangelo and Rodin hopefuls.

What has happened? When did the human body once again fall into

disrepute? I thought modern society got over the sin issue. At what

point did medievalism eclipse humanism?

I knew that America was being transformed into a faith-based

society when I learned that the astrology column was the most read

newspaper column, when we greeted each other with “What’s your

sign?,” when “family values” was code for a Puritan paradigm, when

evolution was a lie, when an “evil empire”(once a dragon) beyond the

moat awaits to swallow us, when prayer meetings were held in the

White House, when the First Lady sought answers from her astrologer,

when fundamentalists became Republican vote getters and when

President Bush appointed John Ashcroft as attorney general -- a

reincarnated version of the 15th century zealot Savonarola ... the

leader of the Renaissance fig leaf police.

Add to this the long history of anti-intellectualism in America.

School grades plummet while the hordes rush to the herb shops in

search for instant pleasure and eternal youth.

It is a nation that is running blindly into a new Post Modern Dark

Ages. The cyclical flow of history has once again entered into its

medieval phase. Laguna has followed suit. The light of the

enlightenment is out. The chosen ones, without any sense of history

or art, have given us their mandate.

There will be no nude art at City Hall!

Michelangelo need not apply!

GENE COOPER

Laguna Beach

City is working

on parking issues

Parking, traffic and circulation is clearly our number one issue

in town now. Have no doubt that this issue is on your City Council’s

radar screen.

We seem to have many groups attempting to address this issue at

the same time -- including our hard-working Planning Commission,

which is overseeing a Downtown parking study -- and our Parking,

Traffic & Circulation Committee, whose charter it is to look into

ways to improve the quality of life of our residents by addressing

concerns as they arise.

Parking, traffic and circulation problems can be lumped into two

categories: (a) year-round problems and (b) festival season problems.

Year-round problems exist particularly in those neighborhoods

within four to six blocks of the ocean. And in the summertime, we all

know that the festival season clogs Laguna Canyon Road and our

Downtown for more than two months and makes it almost impossible for

us to traverse our own town.

Regarding year round concerns: One of the directions people seem

to be headed is “neighborhood parking stickers,” which, when applied,

allow only neighbors and their guests to park in specific

neighborhoods without receiving a parking ticket.

Many neighborhoods are now expressing an interest in this type of

program. As many of you know, Steve Dicterow and I introduced an

agenda bill to develop this type of program, but there is a potential

snag: the California Coastal Commission dislikes sticker programs

within several blocks of the ocean. They often turn these programs

down. However, we have asked the Planning Commission to review other

cities’ programs (some have been approved, including a few beach

cities) and develop concepts for a neighborhood parking sticker plan.

Councilwoman Toni Iseman, who is on the Coastal Commission, has

indicated that in order to approach the body with approval for this

(and, after the city, they are the ultimate approving body for

parking programs within “x” number of blocks of the ocean) we need to

have strong mitigations.

I recently introduced an agenda item that was unanimously approved

by the City Council to expand our peripheral parking program. My

specific agenda item focused on:

1. Pursuing peripheral parking at the north end of the city --

using the parking lot at Crystal Cove State Park. Last year, I met

with the management of the park and they indicated that we could

expand our tram service to the park’s parking lot location, if we

wished, and they would help us publicize the fact that parking for

Laguna Beach was available at their large lot.

2. Exploring a peripheral parking opportunity in South Laguna and

adding the tram service in the summertime/Festival season to a South

Laguna parking location. Councilwoman Iseman is reviewing options in

that area.

The peripheral parking and expanded tram service concept

potentially solves several issues: it reduces the number of cars

coming into our Downtown, it helps to create additional employee

parking for businesses that do not have enough parking (many of our

original businesses were built without parking and they are not

required to provide parking because they were “grandfathered” when

the city created its parking standards), and it provides mitigation

to the California Coastal Commission for a neighborhood parking

permit program.

Concurrent to these efforts, the Chamber of Commerce is responding

to its South Laguna business members to develop parking solutions for

businesses, and the Laguna Flatlanders -- residents in the area of

Glenneyre Street from Thalia Street to Bluebird Canyon -- are meeting

with City Council members Dicterow and Jane Egly to identify some

immediate opportunities for neighborhood relief, as well as exploring

some long-term strategies that could be applied citywide.

As it relates to year-round solutions, I have also long advocated

“pocket parking” -- either small lots or small parking structures --

throughout our city to relieve neighborhood parking. These parking

lots might be existing lots that are full during the week, but empty

on weekends. Or, they could be created by public-private partnerships

whereby new lots or garages are built with the combined resources of

the city and a private commercial or institutional property owner.

While there are some immediate solutions that can be implemented

in some specific neighborhoods to provide relief, it is my hope that,

in the near future, all of the members of our city bodies and various

concerned organizations and neighborhoods give all of our many ideas

to the Parking, Traffic and Circulation Committee to develop

“big-picture” recommendations to the Planning Commission and City

Council for consideration and adoption.

ELIZABETH PEARSON-SCHNEIDER

Laguna Beach

Editor’s Note: Pearson-Schneider is Laguna Beach’s mayor.

Questions ability of lot owner to build

How many elephants can you fit into an elevator? I don’t know, but

I can tell you how many houses should legally be allowed on the Mar

Vista parcel.

There is question as to whether Mar Vista is a legal building

site. The property was annexed into South Laguna in 1983 without ever

having received any previous building permits from the county. The

closest the parcel ever got was an “approval in concept” from the

Coastal Commission for a single-family dwelling.

The approval in concept stipulated that the owner relocate the

house to a different place on the lot and resubmit his building plans

to the Coastal Commission. When the owner started grading the area

without a permit, it sort of nixed that deal. However, the owner

never received a building permit from the county nor was he able to

finalize the zoning he was in the process of changing, and needed

before a house would be allowed.

According to the county, in order for the property to be a legal

building site it would have to have final tract and parcel maps with

numbered lots, a record of survey such as a lot line adjustment or

Certificate of Compliance or deed conveyance, and comply with the

requirements of the zoning district, filed with the County Recorder

before May 24, 1962.

When the parcel was annexed into the city in 1983, this process

had not been completed. Consequently, the site was not an established

legal building site.

City documents indicate the new property owner claimed to have

received a prior building approval from the county. The city claims

it did not want to deny the owner a right that had already been

granted to him, and used this as the foundation for which the 1990

approvals were received.

How many elephants can you fit in an elevator? I still don’t know,

but I can tell you Mar Vista is not a legal building site, the

justification from which subsequent building permits rest are based

on a false premise, the city is aware of this, yet the city is

facilitating this owner’s ability to build at the location anyway.

DEBBIE HERTZ

Laguna Beach