Laguna Beach council member outlines surge plan and new visitor messaging for summer 2025

Council member Sue Kemp said the city of Laguna Beach will deploy additional resources and launch a new public messaging campaign for summer 2025 to manage rising visitor impacts.

Kemp, speaking during council remarks, said the effort will surge city services — including traffic control, parking citations, nuisance enforcement, trash removal and restroom cleaning — and use a messaging approach that “remind[s] people how they should care for Laguna once they're here.”

The plan responds to a regional rise in visitors, Kemp said, noting “we have a couple million people within 45 minutes of Laguna Beach.” She added the city expects “as many or more travelers to Laguna Beach in 2025 as we did in 2024.” Kemp described the messaging strategy as emphasizing Laguna Beach’s environmental, cultural and heritage resources and calling the community a “sacred space,” similar to outreach used in destinations such as Lake Tahoe and Vail, Colorado.

Kemp framed the actions as efforts to “get[] ahead of it this year,” and said more details and videos about the campaign will be released in coming weeks. The remarks did not include a formal vote or ordinance; Kemp presented the surge and messaging as the city’s plan rather than a council action recorded in the transcript.

Background: Laguna Beach and neighboring Orange County cities have for years balanced tourism with local services and environmental protections. Kemp did not specify funding sources, exact staff counts, or a formal implementation timeline in the remarks recorded in the transcript.

Kemp’s full remarks are recorded in the meeting transcript and include the direct statements: “We're not telling people not to come here. We're reminding people how they should care for Laguna once they're here,” and “This kind of messaging is similar to what's being talked about in places like Lake Tahoe, Vail, Colorado.”