Laguna Beach presents Ocean Avenue and Beach Street concept plans; one-way study heads to council Nov. 18

Laguna Beach staff and consultants on Nov. 6 presented concept-level plans to redesign Ocean Avenue and parts of Beach Street downtown, including new sidewalks, tree-well treatments, curb bump-outs, screening for surface parking and drainage improvements — and said a KOA traffic study that examines a possible one-way conversion of lower Ocean Avenue will go to city council on Nov. 18 for direction.

"The focus of this project is along Ocean Avenue, basically from Forest Avenue down to Coast Highway and also portions of Beach Street," said Pierre Sawaya, capital program manager in Public Works, who opened the town hall and said staff have begun corridor survey and utility mapping and contracted an independent arborist to visually inspect about 79 trees along the route.

Staff and SWA Group landscape architect Evan Lee described design aims to preserve Ocean Avenue’s pedestrian character and tree canopy, simplify and unify paving (proposed 2-foot by 2-foot saw-cut sidewalk panels), and add targeted planting and curb extensions to improve crosswalk visibility and reduce the visual impact of surface parking lots. Lee said the team is weighing two…