LAGUNA BEACH : Restroom Project Gets City Approval

More than two years after three local businessmen formed a “potty committee” to build new public restrooms in Laguna Beach, the group has won city approval for the project and plans to begin construction in April.

The proposal was launched by Design Review Board member J.J. Gasparotti, who in a 1991 column in a local paper lamented the scarcity of public restrooms in Laguna Beach.

In response, architect Gary Whitfield submitted a restroom design to Gasparotti, and Laguna Beach Lumber Co. owner Joe Jahraus offered supplies for the construction. Now the three are urging residents to join in by donating supplies, labor and money.

Gasparotti, a building contractor, likens the process to the community’s efforts years ago to build Riddle Field and the city’s main lifeguard station.

“The essence of a small town is where people kind of get together and chip in to do something for the common good,” he said. “This is sort of like the next generation doing its stuff.”

It has taken a certain amount of resolve for the three men to get the project this far, considering the wall of opposition they hit when seaside residents balked at the prospect of having a public restroom near their homes.

Initially, Jahraus said, the group hoped to build restrooms at six city beaches.

“One (resident) said, ‘Don’t try it here. We’re organized, there’s 25 of us and we have a lawyer,’ ” Gasparotti said.

Downtown merchants, however, were more receptive. Therefore, the plan now calls for two unisex restrooms--each with a water closet and a urinal--to be built side by side in the Ocean Avenue parking lot in the downtown area.

The project, which won unanimous approval of the City Council last month after getting an earlier nod from the Design Review Board, is being planned in conjunction with a larger effort to renovate the alley between Ocean and Forest avenues.

To solicit tax-deductible donations, the group filed for a nonprofit status as the Alley Toilet Committee.

As envisioned, the restrooms will have sinks, skylights, changing-tables for the diapering of infants and a pleasant decor.

“We’re going to put the hit on a couple of artists to do something on the inside,” Whitfield said.

While public restrooms are particularly scarce along the beaches in Laguna Beach, Whitfield said they are also needed in the main business district because “about 2 million tourists zip through there every year and there are only two sets of restrooms” in the area.