LAGUNA BEACH : New Talks Due on Laguna Canyon Road

With the delicacy some might reserve for walking into a mine field, a group of city, county and environmental leaders is preparing to reopen discussions on the possibility of widening or realigning Laguna Canyon Road.

For most of the last two decades, Laguna Beach has opposed efforts to broaden the twisting, two- to three-lane roadway, and there is little indication that majority opinion on the City Council has shifted.

“I think Laguna Canyon Road is one of the most beautiful country roads left in Southern California,” Mayor Robert F. Gentry said last week. “And I think to expand it would be criminal.”

County officials, however, say Laguna Canyon Road is a key link in the Orange County Master Plan of Arterial Highways. Translated, this means planners have long envisioned the road expanding to up to six lanes.

In a renewed effort to make changes in the 4.6-mile stretch of the road from El Toro Road to the San Diego Freeway, county officials are now forming a “consensus-building group” to craft a project that will be acceptable to Laguna Beach. They say they are open to all suggestions.

“It’s an issue that people feel very strongly about,” said Mark Goodman, an aide to Supervisor Thomas F. Riley. “And the potential is there for litigation and strong opposition, as we’ve seen on the toll road.”

And last week, without endorsing the concept of widening the road, the City Council agreed to join the coalition of groups that will gather next month to take a fresh look at how the road might be expanded, rerouted, straightened, or otherwise “improved.”

There is some indication that tensions between those for and against a road widening may be relieved by others who are voicing new opinions on the subject.

Some environmentalists who might previously have favored a hands off approach are now saying the road should be redesigned to move it away from the three natural lakes that are being damaged by their close proximity to the roadway.

Jeff Powers, who said he will represent the city Planning Commission and Village Laguna during the coming meetings, said distancing the road from the lakes would be “a great boon environmentally.”

“I’m very much in favor of it,” Powers said. “I think it would be very beneficial on a lot of levels.”

But while everyone questioned on the subject expressed a willingness to at least consider options, some city and environmental leaders say it would be hard if not impossible to improve upon the picturesque road, one of only two highways leading to Laguna Beach.

“First, no one improves Laguna Canyon Road,” Laguna Canyon Conservancy director Mike Phillips said flatly.

The conservancy has not yet discussed joining the coalition or taken a formal position on changing the road, he said.

Councilwoman Lida Lenney joined her colleagues in the 4-0 vote to take part in the new talks, but with reservations.

Pointing to the council’s refusal to participate in planning for the proposed San Joaquin Hills tollway, which the city opposes because it would cut across the canyon, Lenney cautioned that, by entering the discussions on Laguna Canyon Road, the city could begin to “buy into the concept of ‘improving’ it.”

“I think a road like Laguna Canyon Road is worth saving in its present state,” she said.

Others, however, say changing the road could make it safer and could lessen the possibility of future flooding on the heavily traveled state highway that links Irvine to Laguna Beach. The road was closed earlier this year when heavy rains caused the swelling lakes to spill over onto it.

County officials say they are encouraged by the early response to their inquiries on the subject. By this time next year, environmental documents should be ready for some type of road project, said Kari Rigoni, a county Environmental Management Agency planner.

“We’re really in the infancy of starting this project over again,” she said.