City of Laguna Beach enters escrow to buy Ti Amo property for $2.7 million
Laguna Beach has entered into escrow on the former Ti Amo Ristorante property at 31727 Coast Highway for $2.7 million.
The acquisition would be made for civic use, and one such possibility that received attention at the City Council meeting on June 15 was that the land could be used to build a new fire station in South Laguna.
The council opted to move forward with the process, hiring Rincon Consultants Inc. at a cost of $89,199 for a study that would look at potential uses of the property and create the associated environmental analysis. The city has three months to do its due diligence on the acquisition.
A staff report noted the city could use the land to replace Fire Station No. 4, located at 31646 2nd Ave. The city had been looking at a pair of parcels of land located along Coast Highway at Catalina Avenue, and it offered $1.7 million for those parcels. That offer was withdrawn.
“This is an adequate site,” Mayor Bob Whalen said of the former restaurant property. “It’s probably not a perfect site, but I’m not sure there is a perfect site down there. I think we should move ahead with the study, preserve our option to close. If we end up finding a better site than this one, we can always sell this parcel to a subsequent purchaser.”
Eight residents weighed in on the discussion, with only one of them speaking in favor of the purchase. Residents’ concerns included the loss of a potential commercial spot in South Laguna and the adequacy of the location if it is to be converted to a fire station, as well as the cost of the agreement with the consultant.
“What are they going to study and deliver for $89,000 that we don’t have staff able to do?” Pat Menne said. “I’m tired of you throwing away the money. I consider it throwing away. If I lived like this, I would have no retirement.”
City staff plan to offset the cost using the money recovered from withdrawing the offer on the Catalina Avenue site. There will also be $1 million taken from the parking fund and $100,000 from the future facilities fund.
The council was split on the decision to move forward and bring in the consultant for the Ti Amo property. It passed by a vote of 3-2, with Councilwoman Toni Iseman and Councilman George Weiss dissenting.
“There would be a separate driveway made for fire vehicle access with a dedicated light for that access for the fire trucks to come in and out of the property,” City Manager Shohreh Dupuis said. “The property can be built as a two-story building, versus one story at Catalina.”
Fire Chief Mike Garcia indicated the site could be functional as a fire station. He said that new fire stations are rarely built on parcels of land that are less than half an acre. The lot size of the Ti Amo property is 9,975 square feet.
“I would rather have our apparatus depart off of a side street and not onto a main highway,” Garcia said. “Coming onto a main highway like Coast Highway is problematic, will require pre-emptive lights to stopping.”
A second motion to continue exploring the possibility of acquiring property at 5th Avenue received unanimous approval. That location is viewed as a superior site for a new fire station.
The council showed reluctance to employ eminent domain to acquire property to achieve that goal.
“The thought of eminent domain has never sat well with me,” Councilman Peter Blake said. “You don’t just take someone’s property away.”
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