Opponents of housing project and Coastal Commission at odds over Laguna Canyon Creek designation

The Laguna Beach project at the heart of a legal battle calls for two two-story buildings that would provide more than 28,000 square feet of indoor and outdoor living and working area for artists at 20412 and 20432 Laguna Canyon Road.

Members of the California Coastal Commission approved a coastal development permit for the project in January 2015, but with conditions to be fulfilled by Louis Longi, the Laguna Beach artist behind the work-live development.

They asked that he come up with a habitat restoration plan for nearby Laguna Canyon Creek and that buildings be placed 25 feet from the center of the creek — after the artist agreed to remove decks that encroached into the setback.

Friends of the Canyon, a group of Laguna residents, sued the commission in March 2015, claiming the project would cause them to suffer “irreparable harm because of significant adverse impacts on coastal resources” and that it had not been properly analyzed under the state’s Coastal Act and Environmental Quality Act, according to the complaint.

During a hearing earlier this month regarding the proposed 30-unit project, Orange County Superior Court Judge Kim Dunning heard arguments from attorneys representing the Friends of the Canyon and the California Coastal Commission. The project’s distance from the creek was a prime discussion point — in addition to allegations that some California Coastal Commission members did not properly disclose private communications with a developer’s representatives.

Interpretations vary over whether the creek, which has a history of flooding during major rainstorms, is on the state’s major watershed drainage course map, a necessary designation for structures to be placed 25 feet from a stream’s banks.

Attorney Julie Hamilton, representing the plaintiffs, argued that the creek is on the state’s major watershed map.

As evidence, Hamilton referred to a city staff report from Sept. 25, 2013, that said, “The project site does not include heritage trees, rock-outcropping or ridgelines. However, mature trees and a mapped significant watercourse/blue-line stream, which has been partially channelized, exist along the easterly boundary of the site.”

Commissioners, however, declared Laguna Canyon Creek is “not identifiable” on the map, according to the commission’s response to the complaint, filed with the court in January.

The commission “found that the 25-foot setback, combined with the new condition requiring a habitat restoration plan, was adequate to protect the sensitive habitat on the stream banks and meet the requirements of the Laguna Beach local coastal program,” according to court records.

Dunning has yet to issue a decision.

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Bryce Alderton, bryce.alderton@latimes.com

Twitter: @AldertonBryce