Mayor Alex Wenagi and Mayor Pro Tem Mark Orgel said Visit Laguna Beach will pivot to a “stewardship” model after the city approved a new funding contract that the officials say will return roughly one-third of Visit Laguna’s revenue to the city, with a portion earmarked for artist space and stewardship programs.

The change follows a recently completed bid and contract with the local tourism marketing district. “Visit Laguna now gives one-third of their money roughly back to the city, and a portion of that money is assigned to going toward artist space, housing and artist space,” Mayor Pro Tem Mark Orgel said. Orgel said that allocation is intended to support an artist land trust the council is exploring to preserve studios and housing for artists who, he said, are leaving the community because of affordability pressures.

Why it matters: Laguna Beach’s leaders framed the move as an attempt to balance tourism with protection of the city’s environment, culture and heritage. The officials said the stewardship program will fund increased enforcement on surge-related issues, more beach cleanup, tide-pool docents and support for environmental partners such as the Laguna Ocean Foundation and the Laguna Canyon Foundation.

Orgel described the financing structure he pitched to lenders: a multi-year revenue commitment that would reassure banks underwriting a land-trust loan. “Recurrently and not surprisingly, the magic number was 10 years,” Orgel said, explaining why he sought a 10-year contract for the tourist marketing district. He added that other cities’ agreements are longer (he cited Anaheim and San Diego as examples with 30- and 40-year arrangements), and that lenders asked for a 10-year revenue guarantee to cover shortfalls on artist-property loans.

City leadership framed stewardship narrowly: enforcement against parking, drinking and smoking surges; increased beach cleanup; more lifeguard and ranger patrols; and expanded tide-pool docent staffing. “We’ve been able to get them some more funding to increase the number of docents that are on the tide pools,” Mark Orgel said. Mayor Alex Wenagi said the city will focus on surge-management measures such as ticketing, parking enforcement and stricter controls on drinking and smoking at popular sites.

Leaders acknowledged community mistrust of Visit Laguna’s past social-media and marketing practices and said the organization will pivot away from controversial promotion to focus on protecting resources and encouraging overnight stays at local hotels. Orgel said he plans town-hall meetings to explain the changes and invited residents to ask questions.

Officials also raised long-term concerns about regional growth and visitor volume. “I was reading not long ago that in the next number of years, there could be 187,000 homes over the hill,” Mayor Wenagi said, adding that larger regional projects and new park acreage could increase visitor pressure on Laguna Beach’s beaches and tide pools.

The council intends to use part of the Visit Laguna funds to seed the proposed land trust and to demonstrate a revenue stream for lenders. “If the city does, in fact, loan this land trust money, how are you going to pay us back?” Orgel said he asked lenders; the lenders requested a revenue commitment of roughly 10 years to provide comfort for underwriting.

What remains unresolved: Council members said details on exact loan amounts, acquisition targets for the proposed land trust and timelines were still being worked out and that they would present more information at future meetings and town halls. Michael Litchi, who provided data to council staff, was cited on visitation and trolley numbers; officials said the available datasets vary by metric and season and that some counts were not precisely comparable across sources.

Ending: City officials said the stewardship pivot aims to reduce the impacts of day-tripper surges while protecting hotels and other local investments that support Laguna Beach’s economy. Orgel urged residents to keep an open mind and participate in forthcoming public meetings to shape program details.