Did Vision 2030 Influence Laguna's General Plan?

LAGUNA BEACH VISION 2030 STRATEGIC PLAN

The Laguna Beach Vision 2030 Strategic Plan  begins:

 What will Laguna Beach be like thirty-years from now?  Will we congratulate ourselves on what we have achieved or lament on what we have lost?    

In 1999 the Laguna Beach City Council responded to this concern and appointed a steering committee to carry-out a strategic vision and planning process for Laguna Beach, the Vision 2030 Plan was the result. In all, 2000 residents, students, consultants and community organizations participated in collecting a database of concerns, identifying the shared vision, recording core values, and planning for implementation.   The final plan was published in December 2001. 

The Plan is organized into seven themes identifying strategic goals and implementation actions for each theme. These goals and actions contain keyword phrases that reappear throughout the Plan, for the present study fifty-six goals and eighty-eight actions were identified and counted.

GOALS [56]

accommodate bicycles | accommodate pedestrians | accountable standards accountability | aesthetic character | art colony | beach community | community  dialogue | community participation | cultural facilities | design study | disaster  protection | encourage bicycle | enhance communication | enhance contact | enhance  diversity | enhance honor | enhance spirit | environmental law | environmental  education | environmental sustainability | governance models | historical character | identify pollution | information technology | innovative parking | integrate arts | integrate projects | laguna vitality | light development | long term thinking | low impact | parking strategy | pedestrian solutions |  pedestrian-friendly | preserve ocean  | preserve | open space | promote arts promote identity | protect ocean | protect open space | protection | recognize arts | regional growth | resident friendly | resident  serving | residents priority | small town | strategic planning | traffic circulation | transit  system | unique character | urban design | vibrant downtown | village charm | vision laguna enterprise

ACTIONS [88]

add parking | adequate parking | aesthetic experience | aesthetic improvements |  affordable housing | alternative governance | artist live-work | arts center | bicycle  plan | bike lane | bike path | bicycle pedestrian management plan | BPMP |  business ombudsman | citizen safety | commercial design character |  commercial use | community education  | community events | community  newsletter | conduct analysis | consistent application | consistent enforcement |  community arts center | coordinating committee | cultural arts plan | downtown  area | economic | eforums | election process | entry points | environmental  sustainability | environmental committee | erosion control | european plaza |  existing spaces | expand arts venues | facilitate speakers | handbook | historic  resources | intellectual exchange | kiosks | laguna foundation | lifeguard  protection | livable communities analysis | live-work facilities | market research  study | meeting places | mixed use | mixed-use | ocean laguna | office economic |  open space | outside social spaces | oversight committee | parking and traffic  analysis | parking analysis | pedestrian path | pedestrian plan | pedestrian use |  pedestrian way | pedestrian zone | people oriented | peripheral parking | project  teams | promenade | promote vision | public education | public input | remote  parking | resident intellectuals | resource directory | retain beauty canyon | retain  character canyon | scenic improvements | sewage system | task force | town hall |  traffic analysis | trail linkages | transform coast highway | transform PCH | transit  ridership | traffic analysis | vision process | visioning process | website 

LAGUNA BEACH GENERAL PLAN

A General Plan provides guiding principles for a city's leadership and residents to achieve  the vision of its future, the GP is a long-range plan for city urban development. A  city has the freedom to decide what the plan includes however there are requirements under California state law the plan must meet, failure to do so could result in suspension of future urban development. 

The Laguna Beach General Plan regulates public policy to define and protect community resources, the plan is found on the city website here. The Plan consists of nine elements: Housing Element, Human Needs Element, Land Use Element, Circulation Element, and Open Space Element are among them. The Plan's latest revisions span  1976 to 2021, the Housing Element was last updated in 2021. Residents and the steering committee prepared goals and actions in the Vision 2030 Plan to address the concern for Laguna's future, whether or not those goals and city actions actually enter the city General Plan  policy document creates the same concern.

 The charts below show this linkage between the Vision 2030 Plan and the General Plan Elements as of June 2022. One chart for GOALS and one for ACTIONS was created for each of five Elements. The charts show the frequency the keywords in the Vision 2030 Plan actually appear in the five General Plan Elements. The charts show whether the goals and actions intended are planned for action and implementation in the General Plan. Keywords that do not appear in the charts were missing from the General Plan altogether.

GOALS in General Plan

 ACTIONS in General Plan

CONCLUSION:   For LAND USE and HOUSING Elements the influence from the Vision 2030 exercise is marginal, while for HUMAN NEEDS, OPEN SPACE AND CIRCULATION there is no influence at all. From this study there is little evidence the goals and actions from Vision 2030 entered the city General Plan. Would a rewrite of the Vision 2030 Plan influence a new General Plan?  Probably not. How effective is Laguna's General Plan for implementing those GOALS and ACTIONS? Yogi Berra said it best:   "IF YOU DON'T KNOW WHERE YOU'RE GOING, YOU WILL END UP SOMEWHERE ELSE."

-LS

It's VOTING DAY! Road Safety Ballot Measures

Over the last decade pedestrian and bike accidents and fatalities are on the rise. Here are two initiatives you can take to improve roadway safety.

From America Walks (Annandale VA) is a one-click comment to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration NHSTA for improving vehicle design to protect other roadway users here.

People for Bikes (Boulder CO) are promoting legislation in 7 states, 6 measures in Califonia to build multi-use paths, bike-lanes, and rail/bike conversions. The measures A, D, F, M and more are explained by People for Bikes here. Be sure to vote for measures on your ballot.

-LS

Car-Free Paradise or Parking Pit

Some world class cities made the choice: Oslo, Paris, Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Munich Brussels. Some cities reserve a small part of downtown as car-free, a paradise for pedestrians cyclists and trolley users. Here's how World Economic Forum presents Ljubljana in Slovenia: Ljubljana goes Car-Free

Laguna Beach has a choice: car-free paradise or parking pit. 

-LS

It's Bike to Work Day

 Remember your first bike? Old Fashioned?  Too dowdy for your kid? eBike pase'?

Try the WalkCar by Cocoa Motors.

-LS

Happi Earth Day!

 

Don't wait for Mars and Musk, there is only one planet Earth.

 

-LS

Multi-modal Transport Planning for South Orange County

The Orange County Transportation Authority (OCTA) reports south Orange County is expected to grow by 170,000 residents and 130,000 jobs by the year 2045. The agency is planning a multimodal design to meet the demand for transportation in south county including beach cities and seeks public input to the planning process. 

Express your mobility preferences for Laguna in a short survey here.  

The OCTA planning FAQ page is here.

-LS

Petition for Multi-use Path Laguna Canyon Road

The Village Entrance features a 150-foot long multi-use path serving the Laguna Pageant and Farmers Market motorists.  A petition to extend the path to serve pedestrians and bikers was submitted to City Council on Monday 14 March. The petition from Laguna residents requests extending the existing path from the Village Entrance to Canyon Acres and Act V. The extension would serve Canyon residents and Act V visitors to walk/bike/trolley to town without driving, consistent with reducing parking and traffic congestion in LB.

From the Pageant to Canyon Acres is roughly 6/10 of a mile long with an existing sidewalk. Built as a community project a multi-use pathway could feature some inspiring artwork to welcome visitors to the downtown area:

• Street Art (examples)
  
• Poetry Readings
• Rest Area Seating (examples)
• DIY Bike Service Station
  

UPDATE: 12 March 2024 Les Miklosy submitted an ACTION REQUEST FORM to the Parking Traffic and Circulation Committe to foster the Multiuse Pathway. The action request was rejected, the response received indicated this proposal was NOT IN THE JURISDICTION OF THE LAGUNA BEACH PTC.

UPDATE: 10 May 6:00pm Les Miklosy spoke to the LB City Council during PUBLIC COMMENT to remind the city the petition was not recorded in the public record despite previous attempts to do so.  In the 10 May Agenda there is no record of the comment, the petition for a Multiuse Pathway remains DOA - as planned.

UPDATE: In the 26 April City Council meeting this petition was noted by city staff as "Public Comment (received after Agenda posted)", most odd since the petition was submitted for Public Comment on 15 March 2022. The Petition was not recognized by council members during public session.

UPDATE: As of the 12 April LB City Council meeting no mention of the public petition appears on the city agenda for Public Comments. 

UPDATE: This petition with 56 residents participating was submitted to LB City Council and City Clerk on 15 March 2022.

-LS

Laguna Beach Rally for Ukraine

 "Let's go attend the Rally for Ukraine"!

On Sunday March 4 2022 LB residents and visitors at Main Beach show support for citizens of Ukraine fighting the Russian invasion due to geopolitical differences, democratic freedom, and billion$ in petroleum resources. In contrast the West it seems, motorist convenience remains non-negotiable.

-LS

Coastal Commission Reviews Laguna Downtown Specific Plan (DSP)

In December 2021 Laguna residents were invited to read the California Coastal Commission (CCC) review of the latest Laguna Beach Downtown Specific Plan (DSP). The commission review consists of 325 pages of edits, redactions and recommendations to modify the original 179-page DSP. The CCC redacted some topics dear to Laguna residents and city planners, other topics were modified or added to the DSP. 

Since these lengthy planning documents are unlikely to be read by LB residents and fewer still will comprehend how the planning changes would affect them, it would be helpful to reduce their content to basic topics readers could grasp at a glance. The charts below are an attempt to do this. In this way a quick view of the chart gives the reader a grasp of the topic and the trend shown by the graph.

Topics of interest dear to Laguna residents are associated with abbreviated keywords, for a topic of Affordable Housing the keywords may be "InDeed" or "shared parking" or "single-family". The keywords for Mobility would include "employee incentives" or "parking structure" or "remote parking" and so on. 

In this way each DSP topic is described by a short library of distinguishing  keywords. The topics covered best contain more descriptive keywords, those covered least contain fewer keywords. For example "aesthetics, attractiveness, art community, preservation" are keywords for topic Goals in the DSP.

The charts show keywords mined for a given topic, like Affordable Housing. Notice how seldom the keywords appear in the original DSP.

The Laguna Beach DSP document was organized into Goals, Issues, and Implementation Measures. The next charts show charts for DSP Goals and the Implementation Measures proposed to achieve those Goals. Notice the measures proposed often do not address the goals. For example, the most frequently mined Implementation Measures of "new development", "affordable housing" and "funding" do not address the popular Goals of "enhance", "activities" and "preserve".  

It is disappointing to learn the Laguna Beach Planning Commission inserted a single occurrence of "Complete Streets" to support the DSP Mobility topic supported by LB residents, then the Coastal Commission redacted it and other references about mobility.

This chart shows the recommendations for a resilient prosperous town by Strong Towns dot org are largely ignored, the frequency of relevant keywords are low.

In 2001 the Laguna Beach Vision 2030 Strategic Plan written by Laguna Beach residents but not adopted by the city of Laguna Beach. These results show the vision plan keywords for Goals and Actions are absent from the DSP.

These results from the Laguna Beach DSP planning document are disappointing, the actions taken by the California Coastal Commission are further limiting and prevent Laguna Beach from planning implementation measures to achieve future goals. Hopefully these charts give more LB residents a better understanding of the planning documents defining Laguna's future urban plan. Time for a do-over, let's improve our planning deliverable documents.

-LS

Laguna Beach On-Demand Transit Service

Due to Covid-19 the old city transit services were suspended  March 20, 2020, the new LB On-demand transit service launched October 18 will replace it. 

Old Transit Trolley Service

• Grant requirements were 10 passengers per hour, old transit fell below that. 
• Boarding costs were $16 per boarding

New On-Demand Transit Service

• Serving Top of the World, Arch Beach Heights, and Bluebird Canyon.
• From local transit stops to Downtown or transfer points.
  
• New on-demand scheduling is anticipated to improve boarding, convenience
• New on-demand plan seeks to avoid delays due to traffic on fixed routes fixed schedule.

Pilot program budgeted $753,000 for services from a transit company, 80 percent of this transit funding is from state and local grants, the remainder LB parking revenues.

Service Schedule: 

• Mon to Thurs from 8am-6pm/Fri 8am-10pm/Sat from 10am-10pm
  
• TransLōc smartphone app here. 
• Or call Transit Dispatch at 949-497-0766
• Get a user guide here.
  

-LS