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Laguna Beach assessment district wins majority support for West Street undergrounding; council moves to award contract
Summary
Property-weighted ballots returned a majority “yes” for the West Street undergrounding assessment district. Council directed staff to finalize tallying, declare results, confirm assessments, and award a construction contract with city contributions and change‑order limits.
Laguna Beach city staff reported that weighted ballots for the proposed West Street utility undergrounding assessment district returned a majority in favor, and the City Council approved the next steps to proceed with construction. City staff canvassed property owners, tallied returned ballots in a public process and presented results to the council.
The ballot tally showed 59 yes votes and 34 no votes (about 63% yes by voters cast). The assessment amounts represented in the yes ballots totaled about $3,100,000 versus $1,750,000 represented by the no ballots. After the tally, Council adopted resolutions declaring the balloting results, confirming the assessments and ordering the improvements, and then moved to award a construction contract and set financial controls for the project.
The council approved awarding construction to Hotline Construction (staff-reported contract value roughly $3.4 million) and authorized two separate city contributions toward the project: a previously approved $1.4 million total from the street lighting and wildfire mitigation funds (about $578,000 from the street lighting fund and about $837,000 from the wildfire mitigation fund) plus a general-benefit contribution itemized in the staff presentation. The council also authorized the city manager to approve construction change orders in an amount not to exceed approximately $340,000. Staff advised the council they planned to find the project exempt from CEQA before authorizing construction.
City staff walked through the next administration steps: public notice, awarding the contract, executing the construction agreement, and managing assessments through the city’s assessment district process. Staff also invited property owners to observe the public tally and confirmed that incomplete ballots (missing a signature or a marked vote) were not counted in the weighted total.
The work responds to fire-safety and storm-resilience priorities and will replace overhead lines and poles in the West Street district. Pierre Sawaya, capital program manager, summarized the financing plan and the public‑outreach steps undertaken to validate ballots and substitute replacement ballots when appropriate. Council members voted to adopt the resolutions and proceed with contract award.
Council and staff said the project will proceed with the contract and the funding commitments approved, and staff will report back on contract execution and schedule items as construction planning advances.
