LAGUNA BEACH : Plan Would Widen, Reroute Canyon Road

Laguna Canyon Road, one of three routes into Laguna Beach, has been closed by flooding nine times in the past six weeks.

Twice, the curvy highway was partially shut down. The other times it was blocked off completely.

While frustrated motorists squeezed their cars onto either El Toro Road or Coast Highway, workers hauled machinery to Laguna Canyon Road and began to pump away the water.

Meanwhile, however, behind-the-scenes discussions have been taking place to find solutions to the problems of flooding and traffic safety on the scenic 4.6-mile road of highway that runs from the San Diego Freeway to El Toro Road.

Last month, a group of environmentalists and city and county representatives, called the Laguna Canyon Road Consensus Committee, endorsed a plan to widen the two- to three-lane state highway to four lanes. The proposal also calls for the road to be moved several hundred yards west, away from three natural lakes which overflow and spill onto the highway during heavy rains.

The plan is one of several that will be explored in public hearings the county plans to schedule by summer. The roadwork itself is still years away.

While some on the committee say they are encouraged that 14 of 17 members agreed upon one plan, any move to alter the highway is sure to be controversial.

For years, any hints at widening, straightening or otherwise changing the highway have met with rigid opposition in Laguna Beach, where residents are fiercely protective of the bucolic canyon.

In fact, the two committee members who rejected the plan to widen the road were Laguna Beach Mayor Lida Lenney and Councilman Robert F. Gentry. They favor an alternative proposal to build a bridge over the lake rather than rerouting the road.

At the council meeting Tuesday, Lenney said she will ask that a city workshop be scheduled to further explore the subject.

“I think the Laguna Canyon Road issue is so sensitive in this community that there’s no way I would commit myself to a major decision about it without hearing from people in the community,” she said.

Some residents, however, say accepting a plan such as that endorsed by the committee would be a wise move environmentally and politically. It would allow the lakes to be properly restored and could head off an anticipated move by the county to someday widen the highway further, they say.

Laguna Canyon Road is listed on the county’s Master Plan of Arterial Highways, which means planners have envisioned the road’s being expanded to up to six lanes.

“If Laguna Beach would cooperate with the county, there’s a high probability that the four-lane road would be accepted instead of a six-lane road,” said Robert R. Mosier, chairman of the city’s Parking, Traffic and Circulation Committee and a member of the consensus committee.

Lenney, however, said building a new road is too drastic.

“I just don’t see how you can put a whole new road through Laguna Canyon without doing irreparable harm.”