Laguna Beach mayor says parking rules are a key barrier to filling downtown vacancies

Mayor Alex Granaghi discussed parking regulations and their effect on the city’s vacant storefronts during a public conversation with small-business owner Zach Cornwell and city planner Anthony Viera.

“we recently did an economic study, and we found that in Laguna Beach, we have an 88.3% vacancy rate, which none of us want,” Mayor Alex Granaghi said, citing the city study and comparing Laguna Beach’s vacancy rate to lower rates in neighboring cities.

The discussion focused on how Laguna Beach’s parking requirements — originally adopted in 1958 and substantially rewritten in February 2007 — can make it difficult or impossible to reuse small, older commercial buildings in the city’s walkable downtown and Coast Highway commercial corridors. Anthony Viera, a city planner, said the problem is common for food-service uses, which the city’s regulations treat as producing higher parking demand than many retail or office uses.

Zach Cornwell, who owns WIGS sandwich shop on Pearl Street and Coast Highway, described the approvals for his 800-square-foot shop as “pretty…