What’s Around the Corner for Laguna Canyon Road?

As the conflict around Laguna Canyon Road heats up now and then, pitting the Orange County Transportation Commission and Supervisor Thomas F. Riley against the city of Laguna Beach and the Coastal Commission, the issues have become fuel for a much more transcendent conflict. Aside from the pressures to develop certain lands along the canyon and the big money this involves, there have been, for years, personal vendettas of individuals and groups.

To the county, the small beach community, with its diverse and nonconforming citizens, has always been an irritant. The city seems to be opposed to everything that smacks only faintly of development. To wit, the city’s fight against the Carma-Sandling project on Top of the World as well as the reluctance of the city Design Review Board to ever vote affirmatively on any issue before it.

Conversely, the county, like a big bully, flexes its muscles, shows its teeth, and fundamentally opposes the dwarf on the shore. Safety of the road is the county’s pet and only argument. The developers hang in the wings with thunderous dollar whispers waiting for the spoils, the hidden argument.

It is incomprehensible for the county to insist on widening and moving Big Bend for the sole reason of safety. Rather, it would be an invitation to much higher speeds and more horrible accidents. I drive through the canyon each day at a “safe” 56 to 59 m.p.h. Invariably, someone tailgates me to the next passing lane, when they fly by, giving me the “look.” A few minutes later I often would pass them on the freeway where they are still trying to zigzag across lanes.

I join the chorus who claim: “It’s not the road. It’s the driver.” And besides, Big Brother County, leave us crazy Lagunans alone. If the majority of our townsfolk chose a no-growth or slow-growth city government, it should be respected. After all, we still have that choice, don’t we!

PETER WEISBROD

Laguna Beach