Update / Follow-up on the news

Residents’ hopes that city leaders would be able to keep Wild Oats Community Market from replacing Acords grocery store were dashed Tuesday night when City Council members said the switch is inevitable.

At the same council meeting, attorney Belinda Blacketer announced that she filed a lawsuit in Orange County Superior Court Tuesday against Laguna Beach on behalf of residents who feel that the city has not done enough to keep chain stores from replacing mom-and-pop businesses downtown.

Many residents say the loss of one-of-a-kind shops is destroying the city’s “village character.” Allowing the full-service Acords to be replaced by a specialty health-food market is “the last straw,” the lawsuit states.

The pending loss of Acords, a fixture in Laguna Beach since the 1930s, has infuriated many loyal customers, who say the “yuppified” Wild Oats is more expensive and won’t carry the products they need.

Representatives of the Wild Oats chain, which could open at the 283 Broadway location as early as May, say they will do whatever they can to fit into the community.

After an emotional public hearing earlier this month at which residents pleaded with the council to block the change, city officials met with the property owner in hope of finding a way to keep Acords in its current location while allowing Wild Oats to move in elsewhere.

But city leaders said Tuesday night that they cannot interfere with the wishes of the property owner, who has decided to lease to Wild Oats when the current lease with Acords expires.

“The city cannot interfere in that,” Councilwoman Kathleen Blackburn said.