By Michael Morris
The Laguna Seashore Metropolis Council desires to maneuver a public parking undertaking ahead by means of a lease settlement between the Metropolis and Laguna Presbyterian Church. That’s puzzling as a result of two of our councilmembers are presently engaged on a Parking Grasp Plan scheduled for completion in September. Why advance a expensive parking construction undertaking earlier than the Parking Grasp Plan is accomplished?
The earlier article on this sequence (“Downtown Parking: Myths versus Actuality”) confirmed the Metropolis’s method to parking is disorderly at finest and manic at worst. Two Metropolis consultants favored a discount of parking that landlords had been obligated to offer beneath the earlier Downtown Particular Plan (DSP). The revised DSP memorialized this, which constitutes a major give-away to downtown property house owners. But on the similar time the Metropolis continues to work in direction of building of parking constructions, which almost definitely can be constructed at taxpayers’ expense.
In 2017, the Metropolis proposed seven websites for parking constructions downtown. Two Presbyterian Church properties on third Road had been included. Quick ahead to Might 2019, when the Council met in closed session, directing then-Assistant Metropolis Supervisor Shohreh Dupuis and Councilmember Peter Blake to barter a shared use settlement with the church for a parking construction at 355, 359, and 363 third Road, although the 355 third Road property was not owned by both the Church or the Metropolis.
For added taste, learn what Dupuis mentioned on the Might 10, 2022 Metropolis Council assembly:
“The rationale this got here to town council was that there was an workplace property at 355 Third Road… That workplace property was on the market in 2019 and the Metropolis Council had expressed an curiosity in buying the property. I introduced the acquisition of the property in closed session and at the moment the Presbyterian Church had expressed curiosity that they’d wish to buy the property and in dialogue with the Metropolis Council at the moment it was decided by the Metropolis Council that we should always not pursue the acquisition of the property and as a substitute of that we should always negotiate a share use settlement with the Laguna Presbyterian Church on how we may use that property together with the opposite properties that they personal for a attainable parking construction.”
We now discover ourselves with a Metropolis Council-approved Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Church, which purchased 355 third St. for $1.92 million in 2019. The MOU coincidentally has a “pay as you go lease” merchandise of $1.98 million. For my part, evidently the directive from the Metropolis to barter an MOU prodded the Church into shopping for the property, which in flip was anticipating to be made entire beneath the phrases of the MOU. That is one instance of how the “shared use” lease settlement is disastrous for Laguna Seashore taxpayers, however nice for the Church.
Setting apart the questionable inception of this undertaking, let’s deal with the aesthetics of what could be constructed. The construction can be 150 toes lengthy and 33 toes excessive, abutting Hagan Place, which can also be 150 toes lengthy and even taller. Collectively that’s the size of a soccer subject. The mixed mass of the 2 constructions would change the village feel and appear of the downtown space. The following article on this sequence will element extra in regards to the surprising financials of this proposed deal.
Michael is a Laguna Seashore house owner and a founder and former Treasurer of Laguna Residents First PAC. He beforehand served a one-year time period on the Orange County Grand Jury and as an appointed trustee to the Orange County Vector Management District.