LAGUNA BEACH : Main Beach Park Repairs on Agenda

The City Council on Tuesday will consider taking the first steps to repair Main Beach Park, which suffered the brunt of the damage inflicted by back-to-back storms this month.

Municipal Services Director Terry Brandt recommends the council launch the rebuilding project by paying a team of consultants $22,700 to prepare plans to repair Main Beach, including the partially collapsed boardwalk.

Beside damaging or destroying about 150 feet of boardwalk, the erosion from the rains caused a gaping hole in the park itself, which was blanketed with mud following the storms.

Brandt said it is impossible to know what the final repair work will cost.

“Ballpark, could be $400,000 or $500,000, I don’t know,” he said.

When the council considers that project, local merchants say they will be in the audience to demand the city find ways to reduce the threat of future flooding downtown.

About 30 businesses were shut down by flooding during a Jan. 4 storm and many merchants were again sweeping water from their shops a week later. Some business that were not waterlogged still lost revenue because downtown streets were impassable and patrons stayed away.

Kelly Boyd, owner of the Marine Room Tavern, said merchants met Wednesday to discuss ways to make their shops less susceptible to flood damage in the future. They intended to present their ideas to the council that night, but the meeting was rescheduled because of a second flood.

Boyd said business owners hope to persuade the city to cut a culvert through Main Beach Park at Ocean Avenue so that floodwaters could flow more easily to the ocean.

Fed-up merchants say they tired of having their businesses inundated with muddy waters. Boyd’s tavern, for example, was flooded during both storms.

“The wood floors are buckling a bit,” he said. “We’re not going to call it the Marine Room anymore, we’re going to call it the ‘Submarine Room.’ ”