Laguna Council : Minkin Says This Term to Be Her Last

Laguna Beach City Councilwoman Bobbie L. Minkin said Monday that she would not run for reelection when her term expires in November.

First elected to the council in April, 1982, Minkin said she was relinquishing her seat after 4 1/2 years “because I have accomplished that which I set out to accomplish. . . . I feel comfortable concluding my contribution at this station.”

Minkin, 50, said her top priorities as a council member had been senior citizen housing and the preservation of Laguna’s small-town, art colony atmosphere through stricter downtown zoning ordinances.

“Those issues are now being addressed,” said Minkin, a Laguna resident since 1973. “Through its middle-aged doldrums and inattention, Laguna Beach has allowed itself to slip into a category of tourist towns that are sort of great places to . . . walk around and eat ice cream cones and buy a trinket,” she said

Village Ambiance

“If you don’t have an image (as an art colony), then you are no longer Laguna Beach, you are Waikiki Beach.”

Minkin said that Laguna should work to maintain its village ambiance by enacting a strong downtown specific plan that would limit the number of fast-food restaurants and tourist-oriented businesses in the area around the Forest Avenue shopping district and along Pacific Coast Highway.

The details of such a plan are now being worked out by business groups and city staff for presentation to the council next year.

Also, Minkin said, the city needs to do more to promote the arts in Laguna Beach. She pointed to the lack of a policy, such as other cities have, that requires major developers to provide on-site art as part of their projects or else contribute to a city fund for the arts. The city’s arts commission is now drawing up an “arts in public places” policy, but Laguna has “foolishly overlooked the arts” until now, Minkin said. “It is a proven source of interest for the city, and it will bring in quality tourism. . . . And that is our tax base.”

Robert F. Gentry and Dan Kenney, the two other City Council members whose terms expire in November, have both announced that they will seek reelection. The city has changed its municipal elections from April to November.