Laguna Beach : Surfing Tentatively OKd for Agate Street Beach
The City Council has tentatively approved a change in the municipal code that would permit surfing off the Agate Street Beach.
The beach, currently restricted to swimming, nonetheless has been a popular spot with surfers, who often risk fines to ride the waves there. The change in the code would open the beach to surfing between sunrise and noon and from 4 p.m. until sunset.
Robert McMahon, a Laguna Beach attorney who headed the campaign to open the beach to surfers, on Tuesday presented the council with a petition containing 163 signatures in support of the move.
McMahon argued that because the bottom of the beach off Agate Street is so rocky, most swimmers and waders prefer other beaches, and that the reef off that beach causes waves to break in a manner that board surfers particularly like.
The change in the law will come back for a public hearing and final vote at the council’s next meeting Aug. 20. In the meantime, city officials will post a sign at the beach advising surfers and others of the hearing and vote.
If final approval is given Aug. 20, legal surfing could begin at Agate Street 30 days later.
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