Seniors view Third Street plans

Barbara Diamond

Laguna Beach Seniors Inc. and the city will spend millions on a

center that is neither the size nor the site the seniors would have

preferred, but better than what they have.

“If this doesn’t work, nothing will,” said senior inc. board

member Marge Adams. “ I am tired of the negative comments. People

need to accept what we can do and be flexible.”

After four years of lobbying, planning and fundraising, the senior

center is on the threshold of becoming a reality. The City Council

certified the environmental impact report at the March 6 meeting,

opening the door to design review. Funding is the key.

“Our first priority is raising as much money as we can toward the

$900,000 we need for the building and another $400,000 to $500,000

for an endowment,” Councilwoman Elizabeth Pearson said Monday during

lunch at the Veterans Memorial Building.

Most of the members of the seniors’ organization had not seen the

provisional plans for the complex until Monday, when Pearson made a

presentation after lunch, which included a fund-raising pitch.

“The city manager has said the nothing can be done until the

clinic and the seniors raise money,” Pearson said. “I want to get

started on the building as soon as possible. My goal is to begin

construction by next year so I don’t have to run [for council] again.

“I am not a big believer in government spending on this kind of

thing, but seniors and children are underserved in Laguna, when you

see what’s done in other cities. By God, we are going to do it.

Everyone can leave something in a will.”

Pearson has created a trust that leaves 75% of the value of her

home to the seniors.

“You know how good that feels?” she said.

Pearson announced her bequest at the last council meeting, urging

others to follow her lead.

The words were barely out of her mouth when Lee Winocur Field

offered $25,000, which will put her name on the center’s library.

Pearson’s estimated $400,000 donation gives her naming rights for the

multi-purpose room.

Donations and bequests totaling $3.5 million have already been

made. Senior Thelma Ward made the largest single bequest to date: $1

million.

Pearson all residents, not just seniors, and businesses to

participate in the fund-raising by donating cash or by getting

involved in fund-raising events, such as the Laguna Legacy Ball she

is organizing.

The seniors opted years ago to raise the funds for the center,

giving them the autonomy they want, according to Pearson.

A long-term lease is being negotiated with the city, which owns

the Third Street parcels on which the community and senior centers

are proposed, she said.

The proposed complex includes an 8,000-square-foot senior center,

a 13,000-square-foot community center, rebuilding the Laguna Beach

Community Clinic and underground parking for an estimated 100-125

vehicles. There will be joint pedestrian entry for the two centers

and some interactive uses, although that is somewhat of a one-way

street.

Seniors will be able to reserve space in the larger community

center for events that are too big for their own venue, but not

vice-versa, according to Pearson.

“The city will pay for the community center, all of the parking

and the maintenance and operations of the senior center,” Pearson

said. “The seniors will pay $1 a year for the lease.”

In return, the city gets the use of the parking, when the

facilities are not using the space and all of the revenues.

“I am comfortable with the proposal,” said senior Loraine

Hollingsworth. “I like that we can use the larger Community Center

rooms for dances and other events. We should have some nighttime

activities like a movie night or a casino night. And dances are a

major love.”

The City Council certified the environmental report on the project

with the caveat that the project was only a concept. Both project and

report might require revisions during the design review process.

City Manager Ken Frank recommended the certification, seduced by

the prospect of more parking down town and more revenue.

Mayor Cheryl Kinsman and Councilman Wayne Baglin recused

themselves from the vote -- not just abstaining, but leaving the dais

before the hearing was opened. State law prohibits their official

participation because they own property within 500 feet of the

project. Baglin spoke against the proposal as a private citizen.

Pearson said the seniors’ voluntary decision to reduce the size of

their center and the inclusion of the community clinic in the project

enabled the council to certify the environmental report.

However, the reduction was galling to some seniors, one who

withdrew $1 million bequest.

“The proposal is better than what is here, but it is still not

adequate to serve the (estimated) 25 percent of the city’s population

that are seniors,” said Robert King, a part-time resident since 1966

and a full-time resident since 1989.

Senior Abby Alderman objects to the project for other reasons. For

one thing, she is concerned about the safety of the location at the

base of the Third Street Hill.

Safety issues were addressed in the environmental report certified

by the council. Pearson said the inclusion of the clinic in the

project made it safer because it allowed parking access to be moved

away from the base of the hill, closer to Forest Avenue. A long,

right hand turning lane removes an impediment to downhill traffic,

she said.

Pearson , who has worked diligently on behalf of the seniors both

as an employee and pro bono, as well as other advocates of a new

senior center, would have preferred the site on Glenneyre Street,

where the affordable housing project was constructed.

“We should put our money somewhere else,” said Alderman, a Top of

the World resident for 34 years. “The city could sell [Third Street]

and buy something elsewhere. Glenneyre Street was superior because

people could walk to it and no one would get killed.”

The Glenneyre Street site is close to a bus stop, but at the time

the seniors were adamant about having a 13,000-square-foot center,

which could not have been squeezed into the old Ahimsa property

without a second story, which the neighbors opposed.

Besides which, the city had purchased the Glenneyre site with

designated affordable housing funds. It was suggested that the city

should restore the purchase price to the fund and use that to pay for

affordable housing on Third Street.

The seniors, albeit reluctantly on the part or some, accepted the

Third Street site, assuming they would be allowed the second story.

Vehement neighborhood opposition convinced them to lop off the top

story.

Traffic problems remain an issue for some critics of the project.

The environmental report makes it clear that congestion at some

down town intersections will be adversely impacted and cannot be

mitigated. The Mermaid Street and Third Street intersection was not

studied in the report nor was the impact of left-hand turns into the

complex’ underground parking from south-bound traffic lanes on Third

Street.

“We thought the [report] should not have been certified until the

Downtown parking, traffic and circulation study was completed,” said

Carolyn Wood, long-time Parking and Traffic Circulation Committee

member, speaking for herself.

Seniors board member Adams said nit-picking comments about the

project served no purpose; no better site or project was in the

offing.

“We have to go for it,” Cossie Mechling said.