Laguna’s Fire

This seaside artists’ colony has sunshine (usually), breezes (constantly) and more doodad and art stores than sea gulls.

So what’s not to like?

The crowds, according to some folks in Malibu.

A political video mailed to Malibu voters last week, featuring a voice-over by Malibu resident Jack Lemmon, represents Laguna Beach as the kind of overcrowded place Malibu might become under a pro-development city government.

The video was produced by the Road Worriers, a group that came together in March to oppose a large development project in Malibu that is supported by the mayor.

“Laguna Beach is crowded,” said Remy O’Neill, founder of the Road Worriers. “It’s exactly what we don’t want to have happen here.”

The video produced by the group kicked up its own controversy in Malibu with accusations that the way it was assembled and mailed might have violated campaign-finance laws. But in Laguna Beach, the video kicked up laughs more than anything else.

“What is that supposed to mean?” sniffed Pat Harrell, a 14-year resident, as she enjoyed a mocha and a novel on a bench at Main Beach. “Does that mean Malibu will be a place everyone wants to live in and visit, like Laguna? They should be so lucky.”

The portrayal of Laguna Beach, with its sweeping ocean and canyon views, as representing the worst in overcrowded beach cities baffled Mayor Steve Dicterow.

“It’s remarkable,” Dicterow said. “I think Malibu would be very fortunate and lucky if they could become another Laguna Beach. It has some ways to go.”

The issue arose when thousands of Malibu residents received mailed copies of a video featuring Lemmon criticizing Mayor Jeff Jennings as pro-development and backing one of his opponents, Tom Hasse, in Tuesday’s election.

With all 12 Malibu precincts reporting Tuesday night, unofficial election results indicated that Jennings fell short in his bid for reelection. Jennings received 1,771 votes, finishing behind Hasse’s 1,780 and winner Harry Barovsky with 1,949.

In the video, footage of downtown Laguna Beach rolls as Lemmon asks if Malibu residents want “another crowded beach city filled with hotels, tourists and traffic.”

The video cites Jennings’ support for a controversial plan to build 1.1 million square feet of malls and hotels on a 120-acre site, “fouling the air and destroying the tranquillity that is Malibu.” And increased traffic, the video said, would turn Malibu’s lifeline, Pacific Coast Highway, “into a dirty, dangerous, congested nightmare running right through the heart of Malibu.”

To Dicterow, Malibu has no heart.

“It’s like a beach suburb,” Dicterow said. “It’s not a city, like Laguna Beach. . . . Obviously, they’re speaking from ignorance. Laguna Beach prides itself on not being overdeveloped. The people here spent a lot of time and money to create a greenbelt. Malibu wishes it had something that good.”

If they sat side by side, Malibu and Laguna Beach would look like Mutt and Jeff.

Malibu has about 12,450 people living on 20 square miles, a density of 623 people per square mile, stretching along 27 miles of coastline. Laguna Beach has about 24,100 residents in 8.7 square miles, a density of 2,770 people per square mile, along 7.7 miles of coastline.

Neither place is immune to one of Southern California’s most pervasive concerns: traffic. Caltrans estimates 33,000 cars and trucks a day travel PCH at Civic Center Way in Malibu, compared with 36,500 on PCH at Broadway in downtown Laguna Beach.

“Malibu is a lot bigger,” said Ann Christoph, a landscape architect and former Laguna Beach mayor. “It has a lot longer stretches along the coast. They do have more open space between pockets of development. Laguna Beach is much smaller and denser. If that’s what they mean [by becoming like Laguna Beach], it would be a shame if Malibu were developed along that entire coast with the density that’s here in Laguna Beach. I could see where that would be a negative for them.”

Still, nothing draws a crowd like a crowd.

Tuesday was cool and partly cloudy yet downtown Laguna Beach teemed with camera-toting tourists browsing shops, art galleries and restaurants. Narrow, tree-lined streets in the downtown business district were jammed with cars as big rigs, motorcycles and other traffic rumbled along Pacific Coast Highway.

Nobody seemed to mind the hubbub as, just a few steps away, hundreds of people strolled, sunbathed and played volleyball on the narrow strip of Main Beach.

Resident Rory Arp said parking is the only measurable nuisance in downtown Laguna. Otherwise, it’s a charmed life.

“It’s a cool, eclectic community,” said Arp, who works at the city’s only movie theater. “There are lots of tourists but it isn’t too crowded. And if the tourists didn’t come, we wouldn’t be here.”

Parking, agreed Ron Harris, president of the South Laguna Civic Assn., is “an enormous problem, an unsolvable problem. That’s a testament to what a wonderful place it is. People want to come here for their weekends and for their vacations. They [Malibu] don’t seem to have the tourists that we do.”

The tourists come for specific reasons.

“Yeah, it gets crowded and noisy, but it’s an awesome place,” said Jeff Rothman, a visitor from San Diego. “People wouldn’t come here from all over if it wasn’t. Besides, when was the last time you heard somebody say they spent a great weekend in Malibu? I mean, what is there in Malibu besides rich, snotty celebrities?”