Laguna Beach : Compromise Reached for Surfers, Swimmers

Although the agenda included some weightier issues, including a request to set aside funds to combat plans for offshore oil drilling, a proposal to permit surfing off the Agate Street beach nevertheless elicited a lively public discussion before the City Council’s vote on the matter.

Tentatively approved by the council last month, the change in the municipal code would open the beach to surfers between sunrise and noon and again from 4 p.m. to sunset. But several residents Tuesday asked the council to extend the time that swimmers would be allowed to use the beach so that they could go “boogie-boarding.”

“Only in Laguna Beach would we have this discussion going on for so long, with so many people who are over 40 admitting that they are boogie-boarders,” said a city official afterward. Boogie boards are foam-core floats that allow swimmers to ride the surf.

After the public hearing, the council voted unanimously on a compromise measure that will provide swimmers an extra hour in the afternoon by opening the beach--favored by surfers because of a reef that rests just under the water’s surface--to afternoon surfing from 5 p.m. to sunset.

The changes will take effect Sept. 20.

In other action, the council voted unanimously to appropriate $7,300 to the effort to block a controversial plan by the U.S. Interior Department to open portions of the Orange County coast to offshore oil exploration.

To help pay for a publicity campaign, a Washington lobbyist and other measures, the money will be split between civic and private groups, with the lion’s share--$5,000--going to a fund held jointly by area beach cities and the county.