Helping Laguna Beach residents preserve and make their homes livable for today and the future
Whether you know it or not, certain groups are spending your tax dollars to fight against our own city and its residents.
They’re using a law designed to protect California’s environmental resources in a way in which it was not meant to be used. They are doing this specifically to take legal action against Laguna residents, families and their homes.
In fact, three former California governors find the abuse of this law entirely reprehensible
“Now is the time to end reckless abuses of this important law – abuses that are threatening California's economic vitality, costing jobs and wasting valuable taxpayer dollars. ... Today, CEQA is too often abused by those seeking to gain a competitive edge, to leverage concessions from a project or by neighbors who simply don't want any new growth in their community – no matter how worthy or environmentally beneficial a project may be.”
- Former Governors George Deukmejian, Pete Wilson, and Gray Davis in a 2013 editorial in The Sacramento Bee
So who are these groups and what are they up to?
You’ve probably heard of Village Laguna, and perhaps you’re even a member. This group has done a wonderful job in decades past of keeping large corporate entities from over-developing Laguna. We are grateful for that, as are most Laguna residents. But in recent years, some of Village Laguna’s leadership has been using their previously built goodwill to strong arm the city and many of our residents into a state of frozen decay in the name of preservation.
Since the vast majority of Laguna Beach residents support reasonable preservation and expansion of homes, the democratic process has started to fail Village Laguna’s recent strategy. And so now some members are forming new groups and suing the city and long-time Laguna residents to stop projects that have already gone through the painstaking approval process.
These groups include the Laguna Beach Historic Preservation Coalition and Historic Architecture Alliance. They are comprised of what appears to be a very small group of mostly-anonymous members who claim to care about historic preservation but seem to have lost their grasp on what that means. They want what they want without regard to the impact of our community as a whole, at a serious cost of time, money, and energy to our city and residents.
The filers of these lawsuits have gone as far as claiming corruption at the City. They've declared that the Master's degree in Historic Preservation held by the Laguna Beach Senior Planner doesn't hold water, but the opinions of a Glendale-based group and a Northern California lawyer they hired to stop Laguna residents from lovingly preserving and thoughtfully updating their homes do.
This is exactly the abuse of the law that our former governors warned against - the weaponization of CEQA for one’s own selfish benefit. And you know who has to pay for it? You (via tax dollars) and the very Laguna residents that are being sued by these groups.
Case-in-point: Longtime Laguna Family, the Kirbys
Meet the Kirbys, a three-generation Laguna Beach family. Mom moved here over thirty years ago and attended Thurston Middle School, then LBHS. Growing up in North Laguna, she always dreamed of living in the historic home next door. In 2017 that dream became a reality when the Kirbys purchased the home.
They were well aware that the home was on the historic register and that taking the steps to preserve and expand it would be a lengthy process. But Mrs. Kirby’s personal history with the home and its original owners runs deep. Whether she was climbing the orange tree in the backyard, or eating fresh-baked muffins that Mrs. McReynolds passed her through the window, the home has always held a special place in her heart.
Continually modifying their plans over four years through the processes of being approved by City Planning, the Heritage Committee, the Design Review Board, and City Council, the Kirbys were ready to build their dream home. Then the “preservation” groups filed a lawsuit to stop them. The details leading up to it are truly disturbing.
What can we do to stop this abuse of the law and the abuse of our Laguna Beach residents?
If you care about our town and the realistic preservation of Laguna Beach’s historic homes, if you care about your property rights and those of your neighbors, click the button below to join Laguna Neighbors in fighting the groups who continue to threaten our rights, our families, and our way of living.