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Laguna Beach council to reopen debate on Promenade on Forest amid heavy public input
Summary
Mayor Alex Renaghi said the council expects a robust hearing on appeals to convert the Promenade on Forest to a permanent parkway; he noted a heavy volume of emails and said past councils approved the project unanimously.
Mayor Alex Renaghi said the Laguna Beach City Council was preparing for a lengthy, “robust” discussion of appeals to the Promenade on Forest project after an influx of public comments and emails.
“I’ve never seen more emails coming in on an issue,” Renaghi told radio host Tom Johnson, previewing a council meeting scheduled the same evening. Renaghi said the majority of emails he had seen favored converting the promenade into a permanent parkway, but he expected both supporters and opponents to speak.
Renaghi described the process to date as lengthy. He said the council and earlier councils have held six votes on the promenade and that past votes were unanimous in support across three prior councils. An ad hoc committee chaired by Councilmember Sue Kemp and Councilmember Mark Orgel, Renaghi said, convened a working group of residents that included people both opposed and in favor of the promenade to shape a plan for the closed‑street gathering space.
Renaghi said he hopes the evening’s discussion will be fact‑based and civil, and that the council will weigh public input and the facts before making a decision. He noted the project’s long history of public hearings and said he expected the same core group of opponents to attend the meeting and file appeals.
Renaghi did not report a council decision in the interview. He said he would listen to the public input and make a decision based on the facts before him.
