Fence on Beach Must Go, Says Laguna City Council

The Laguna Beach City Council voted unanimously Tuesday night to press for the removal of a chain-link fence topped with barbed wire that restricts access to Totuava Bay beach to residents of a condominium complex on the north side of the beach.

The resolution directs the city manager to work with the Laguna Lido Homeowners Assn. to knock down what some nearby residents call a dangerous eyesore.

“We’re off in the right direction,” Michael McDaniel, president of the Sea Cliff Drive Homeowners Assn., which petitioned the city to intervene, said after the meeting.

A standing-room-only crowd packed the council chambers to show support for removing the 10-foot-high fence.

“The first time I saw the fence, I couldn’t believe this was Laguna Beach,” resident Pat Paddock told the City Council. “I think it’s elitism.”

Owners of the Laguna Lido Condominiums in South Laguna are concerned that if they fail to maintain the 40-year-old fence as stipulated in their leases, they will lose their homes.

“I don’t like the fence as much as the next person,” said Dolores DeMarco, a Laguna Lido resident who spoke during the meeting. “But I don’t want to lose my home because of this.”

The 99-year lease is up for renewal next year, DeMarco said, and action on the fence might jeopardize title rights to 48 condominiums ranging in market value from $275,000 to $350,000.

“If they want us to take the fence down, and they have the written permission of the owner, then it’s OK,” DeMarco said after the council meeting.

McDaniel, reading from the Laguna Lido association’s lease, said the fence must be maintained unless it violates the law; he and other area residents allege that the fence violates state and local laws prohibiting fencing of any beaches.

The fence, which residents said is dangerous to children playing nearby, was built to preserve the beach as a private enclave for condominium residents and their guests. In a case that was decided by the California Supreme Court, the boundary lines were defined in the 1930s. Later, the owner of the land erected the chain-link fence from atop a bluff down to rocks extending into the ocean.

The council, after listening to testimony Tuesday night, agreed that questions of legality need to be researched before more specific action can be taken. For instance, the city hasn’t been able to find that a permit was ever granted for the fence, Councilwoman Martha Collison said.

At the same time, council members agreed that the fence must go.

“It’s one of the ugliest things you’ll ever see on a beachfront,” said Councilman Dan Kenney. “If there’s some way we can effect the removal of the fence, I’m all for it.”