LAGUNA BEACH : Other Uses for Water Tank Sites Pondered

In what was billed as an opportunity to consider how water reservoirs can be covered and used for recreational purposes, the City Council and the Laguna Beach County Water District held a joint public meeting for the first time in more than a decade on Saturday.

The meeting, requested by the water district, was attended by about 60 residents and included a bus tour to one of the city’s buried water tanks. The general manager of the water district, which serves most of the city, said Monday that he was encouraged by the cooperative tone of the meeting.

“I felt it was historic,” Joseph A. Sovella said. “The goal is to review existing and proposed reservoir sites and to recommend to the water district board potential conjunctive uses such as tennis courts, parks, open space and trails over our property.”

Water district officials have recently stepped up a campaign to convince residents that more water storage is critically needed in the Top of the World neighborhood, a brush-filled area that would be seriously endangered by fire. The district has targeted a plot of open space next to Alta Laguna Park as a likely spot for a tank that would store up to 3 million gallons of water.

On Jan. 4, district officials held a public meeting to make a pitch for that reservoir, and an environmental review is under way.

After that meeting, the city and water district agreed to form a committee to continue working toward joint uses for city reservoirs.

“I think the council members want to cooperate,” City Manager Kenneth C. Frank said Monday. “We’re interested in being able to use a couple of reservoirs in Temple Hills for mini-parks.”

Already, two of the city’s 22 tanks have dual uses, Sovella said. The Bluebird Canyon reservoir is topped with a tennis court, and a Sycamore Hills tank is landscaped so that residents can walk across it, he said. More than a third of the city’s 22 reservoirs are underground, Sovella said.

The water district serves Emerald Bay, Crystal Cove and, with the exception of South Laguna, all of Laguna Beach.