Laguna Beach City Council subcommittee will address need for artists to have live-work spaces

Two Laguna Beach City Council members will serve on a subcommittee to identify strategies to address affordable housing for artists to live and work.

Councilmen Mark Orgill and Alex Rounaghi were appointed to the subcommittee Tuesday by a unanimous vote of the council after they jointly brought the matter up for discussion.

“Laguna Beach is an art colony,” Orgill said in introducing the item. “It is who we are. Housing and work space for our artists has been diminishing over the years, and this problem has been widely discussed for many years, but no action has been taken. As properties in Laguna continue to turn over in areas that currently provide space for artists, these properties are being repurposed for other uses, so time is of the essence.”

Orgill and Rounaghi had been made aware of a potential for the future loss of privately owned artist units, according to a staff report prepared for the agenda item.

The aim of the subcommittee, council members said at the outset of the discussion, would be to explore solutions for artist live-work spaces and bring concepts back to the council in about two months. Orgill surmised that land trusts or public-private partnerships may be possible avenues to pursue.

“I don’t think any of us want the city to be in the business of being a property manager of these spaces,” Rounaghi said. “That’s just not a good use of what the city can do, but the city can be a facilitator, and the city can be a potential partial funder of this.”

Although ideas on how to go about addressing artist live-work spaces differed — including a pitch to incentivize property owners building accessory dwelling units to offer them up to artists at an affordable rate — the public hearing revealed widespread support for council working with staff to research funding options for the acquisition of property for the benefit of artists.

“When we think of Laguna Beach, there are three things that come to mind — our beautiful, natural environment, our cultural heritage that [it] was founded on, and our diversity as a community,” Jorg Dubin, an artist and 47-year resident, said. “Creatives of today may be different than those who founded the community a century ago, but what is different now is the need to maintain affordable spaces for creatives to create and live.

“Do we consider artists, craftsmen, musicians, writers, performers as assets to our town? If the answer is yes, then we have reached the point where our future as an art colony will be determined by what we do now to preserve our cultural heritage in perpetuity.”

While also expressing interest in maximizing affordable housing for artists, Mayor Pro Tem Sue Kempf had a concern about the item going on a public agenda.

“Once you have it widely known the city is involved and wants to look at properties, the prices go up,” Kempf said. “It’s difficult enough to get land deals or property deals here. … I think [artist live-work space] needs to be looked at, and I think we need to be thoughtful about how we go about this because we might have private entities interested in this. There’s a lot of people in this town that are interested in the arts, and I don’t really necessarily want our city’s hand in this. I just don’t want to screw up the economics.”

Support our coverage by becoming a digital subscriber.