Laguna Beach’s ‘Nature Look’ Has Its Price

LAGUNA BEACH — In the end, this city may have been trapped by its own geography and a stubborn insistence that its architecture not conform to the rest of Orange County.

Hemmed in by a lush greenbelt and the sea, Laguna had an identity separate and distinct from the rest of Orange County. Homes perched awkwardly on stilts in the foothills, many affording an unparalleled view of the Pacific. The whole town had the feel of a village unto itself.

Now that exclusivity has come at a price.

“There’s not real good fire access here and there’s lots of brush and sage,” said John Gustafson, the city’s chief building official. “But people like it. That’s why they moved in here. The nature look appeals to them. They like the area and they took a chance.”

Gov. Pete Wilson took homeowners to task Thursday after touring Laguna Beach, chiding them for keeping their surroundings so heavily vegetated. He also said the streets were too narrow, preventing emergency vehicles from getting through.

“There are other ways to beautify homes,” the governor said. “This has got to be prevented because it’s just asking too much of these firefighters.”

Wilson said he is having a map drawn up of California’s worst fire areas--including Laguna Beach--to use as a blueprint for a revised state building code.

The new requirements may include wider roads for emergency vehicles, a 35-foot perimeter around homes that must be free of combustible landscaping, and a ban on wood-shingle roofs.

But one Laguna Beach architect, who has lived in the city for 17 years and has designed 60 homes throughout the city--all of them still standing after the fires--said the city has clung to a woodsy “village character” at the risk of creating a fire hazard.

“A lot of people like that Old Laguna character,” said Mark Singer, 45, who spent several years on the city’s design review board. “They like the cottage look. But some of those cottages are tinderboxes.”

Singer said he avoids using wood on the exterior of homes, preferring concrete siding, stucco and gravel roofs.

“Some people, because of their personal likes and dislikes, select materials that are not necessarily the best choices,” he said. “And some people now have paid the price.”

But Gustafson defended the city’s building code in the wake of the devastation and said Laguna Beach regulations for construction meet or exceed state standards for fire safety.

Laguna Beach established a fire-hazard zone in 1980 that prevents new or remodeled homes from using wood-shingle roofs or wood-shingled siding that is not treated with fire-resistant material.

In addition, the city encourages, but does not require, the planting of only fire-retardant native vegetation.

“Short of putting firebreaks all over the place and building every home with non-combustible material, I’m not sure what else we could have done,” Gustafson said.

Architects say it is difficult to balance the desires of a city or homeowner with the overall need for safety.

“We dealt with the city of Oakland (after the 1991 wildfire there) and some improvements have been made, but the roads are still narrow and twisted,” said Sally Phillips, executive director of the East Bay chapter of the American Institute of Architects. “The bottom line is, people make a choice of where they want to live. If you live in the Midwest, you might be in a flood plain.”

Meanwhile, the fire reignited debate Thursday over the city’s opposition to a proposed 3-million-gallon reservoir in an environmentally sensitive area at the edge of Aliso Woods Canyon Regional Park, in the thick of the fire zone. Firefighters began running out of water about four hours into the blaze.

The reservoir had been proposed by the city’s water district in 1990. Earlier this month, the city manager recommended a 1-million-gallon reservoir.

“It sure would have helped to have that reservoir,” said Joe Sovella, the water district’s general manager. “The more storage we have, the better off we are.”

Bureaucratic delays that postponed brush clearing in Laguna Canyon may also have hindered efforts to fight the fire.

Orange County Fire Capt. Dan Young said Thursday that his department proposed a controlled burn in the Emerald Bay area three to four years ago, in an effort to reduce the amount of combustible material there. Controlled burns are a common management tool to reduce the threat of fire.

Young said the burn was never allowed by local, state and federal agencies because of concerns about air quality, wildlife habitat, the weather and other factors.

“It could have made a difference in this fire,” Young said. “It could have stopped it.”

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Times staff writers Dan Weikel, Mark I. Pinsky and Leslie Earnest contributed to this report.

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Contributing to today’s fire coverage were Times staff writers Fred Alvarez, Leslie Berger, Leslie Berkman, Bill Billiter, Bettina Boxall, Edward J. Boyer, Dwayne Bray, Jennifer Brundin, Mike Carlson, Sara Catania, Anna Cekola, Jack Cheevers, Aileen Cho, Henry Chu, Richard Lee Colvin, David Colker, Miles Corwin, Aaron Curtiss, Tina Daunt, Lily Dizon, Pancho Doll, Tammerlin Drummond, Zan Dubin, Ashley Dunn, Larry Gordon, Michael Granberry, Martha Groves, David Haldane, Len Hall, Greg Hernandez, Nieson Himmel, Berkley Hudson, Greg Johnson, Kevin Johnson, Tracey Kaplan, Daryl Kelley, Matt Lait, Chau Lam, Mark Landsbaum, Thuan Le, Peggy Y. Lee, Caroline Lemke, Dave Lesher, Myron Levin, Eric Lichtblau, Carlos V. Lozano, Rene Lynch, Davan Maharaj, Gebe Martinez, Jean Merl, Jeff Meyers, Joanna Miller, John L. Mitchell, Thomas S. Mulligan, David W. Myers, Edmund Newton, Dana Parsons, Jeffrey A. Perlman, Tony Perry, Mary Lou Pickel, Mark I. Pinsky, Bob Pool, Jeffrey Rabin, Mack Reed, David Reyes, Lee Romney, Ron Russell, Richard Simon, Stephanie Simon, Constance Sommer, Jocelyn Stewart, Renee Tawa, Val Tkach, Vicki Torres, Rebecca Trounson and Jodi Wilgoren. Times correspondents who contributed included Rose Apodaca, Geoff Boucher, Richard Core, Willson Cummer, Maia Davis, Brenda Day, Leslie Earnest, Bob Elston, Julie Fields, Shelby Grad, Robin Greene, Leslie Knowlton, Andrew LePage, Tommy Li, James Maiella Jr., Patrick McCartney, Jeff McDonald, Martin Miller, J.E. Mitchell, Geoffrey Mohan, Matthew Mosk, Jon Nalick, Jeff Schnaufer, Leo Smith, Terry Spencer, Richard Winton and Iris Yokoi. Times researchers who contributed included Will Etheridge, Norma Kaufman, Cecilia Rasmussen, Tracy Thomas, D’Jamila Salem, Cynthia Viers and Nona Yates.