Council upholds design review for new South Laguna Fire Station, adds conditions on materials, landscape and daylighting

Laguna Beach’s City Council on June 10 upheld the Planning Commission’s conditional approval of design review for the new Fire Station No. 4 at 31796 Coast Highway, while adding specific direction about final materials, landscaping and interior daylighting.

City Engineer Tom Perez described the project as an 8,367-square-foot replacement fire station sited on a parcel with access from Fifth Avenue for staff and apparatus. Perez said the design accommodates three full-time firefighters, two ambulance operators and future staffing growth, and that the apparatus bays would exit onto Coast Highway. The Planning Commission conditionally approved the design on May 21 with three principal conditions: reduce the building’s maximum height by at least one foot, shift portions of the building north to align with a proposed retaining wall and return to the commission with a final color-and-materials board and revised landscape plan.

Shweta Sharma, senior planner, summarized the CEQA analysis and noted staff concluded the project does not require additional environmental review: the new station essentially replaces an existing station located about 600 feet away, trip generation is below applicable thresholds for vehicle-miles-traveled analysis, and reconfigured ingress/egress reduces employee trips on Coast Highway. “The project does not conflict with CEQA guidelines regarding vehicle miles traveled,” she said.

Neighbors, planning commissioners and local architects provided detailed comments during the public hearing. Architect Morris Kandarian — who shared advice during the outreach phase — recommended design adjustments to reduce perceived massing and improve materials so the station better reflects local character. “I would commend the architect for listening to some of the changes… but I think it could go a little bit farther,” Kandarian told the council, urging textured materials and refined garage-door treatments to reduce the building’s visual weight.

Neighbor Gigi Force, whose home sits north of the proposed site, urged that the final design avoid creating a narrow ‘canyon’ between retaining walls and asked that the project team clarify where walls, walkways and landscape would be placed relative to adjacent property lines.

Council discussion focused on balancing the city’s urgency to replace seismically vulnerable public-safety facilities with neighborhood and design concerns. Councilmembers directed staff to finalize design documents that preserve required operational features — including nine-foot interior ceiling heights in living areas — and to pursue specified design refinements before construction. The council adopted the Planning Commission action with updated conditions: require a minimum one-foot reduction in building height as the commission requested (while maintaining functional ceiling heights), require a materials-and-color board and final landscape plan developed in consultation with the Planning Commission (including the working group), and add a discrete daylighting requirement — skylights with automatic night shades — to ensure common living spaces receive natural light.

Councilmembers also asked staff to make technical meetings with the architect and neighborhood (including Morris Kandarian) public or available by livestream to increase transparency. Staff said it will continue engineering and construction scheduling and return with a construction timeline and bid-ready documents; the council urged an accelerated schedule because the station replaces a facility staff judged vulnerable after seismic analysis.

The motion to uphold the Planning Commission’s conditional approval with the described modifications passed unanimously.