Parking Garage, Buses to Ease Art Festival Traffic

When the Pageant of the Masters opened last summer in Laguna Beach, it took some people 90 minutes to drive eight miles along Laguna Canyon Road to the site of the annual summer extravaganza.

This year, the congestion should be a little easier to live with, city officials say, thanks to expanded park-and-ride service and a new downtown parking garage.

Work on the 219-space garage on Glenneyre Street, between Legion Street and Laguna Avenue, began last fall after more than two years of study and debate. The $2-million project was to have been finished by June 15, but bad weather last winter and other difficulties have pushed the completion date back to July 31, said Terry Brandt, director of municipal services. Although it will be late for the opening of the Pageant of the Masters Wednesday, the garage will help ease congestion before the show closes Aug. 29.

Completion Delayed

“We’ve had rain delays and problems getting the subcontractors to coordinate their work,” Brandt said. “They are now in the process of completing their brickwork and I expect that they’ll be finished by the end of July.”

The garage, being built on the site of an old 96-space municipal lot, initially will have parking meters, but Laguna Beach will spend $3,000 this year exploring other ways of collecting parking fees there, Brandt said.

This year, too, the city has expanded its tram service to link the outlying portions of the city with the downtown business district and the various festival grounds.

Visitors can park for free at the lot on Laguna Canyon Road north of the Pageant of the Masters grounds or at the lot at Laguna Beach High School and board trams for a quick ride downtown or to a festival.

The service will continue seven days a week during the festival season and then each weekend through Sept. 8. A one-way fare costs 50 cents and an all-day pass is $1.50.

More Spaces Planned

Laguna Beach now has 1,186 parking spaces in the downtown business district and plans to build more, but not in the near future.

In the meantime, more parking would be created if a proposal is carried out to convert Ocean Avenue to a one-way street between Pacific Coast Highway and Forest Avenue.

Ocean Avenue currently can accommodate 39 vehicles parked bumper to bumper. Limiting traffic on the street to one direction would enable cars to park at an angle, raising the total number of spaces to 69, Brandt said.