Laguna Beach holds town hall on Ocean Avenue redesign as businesses warn one-way plan could hurt downtown

Laguna Beach held a community town hall to review concept-level designs for Ocean Avenue and portions of Beach Street, where staff outlined proposed sidewalk replacement, tree-well improvements and a traffic study that could convert Lower Ocean Avenue to a one-way street.

Pierre Sawaya, the city’s capital program manager in public works, said staff have completed corridor survey and utility mapping and commissioned a third-party arborist to assess roughly 79 trees along the route. “A one-way study for the portion of Lower Ocean Avenue between Beach Street and South Coast Highway was performed by KOA, and that item will be presented to city council on November 18,” Sawaya said, describing that meeting as the occasion when council will provide direction on the one-way option.

Evan Lee, a landscape architect with SWA Group, walked through concept ideas to preserve Ocean Avenue’s pedestrian character while simplifying paving with a 2-foot by 2-foot saw-cut grid, improving tree wells (using tree grates or decomposed granite), adding planting islands and bump-outs for pedestrian safety, and screening surface parking with low hedges or vine walls. Lee said the one-way proposal for Lower Ocean could “allow us to have an additional 8 parking spaces” by reconfiguring angled and parallel stalls.

Many downtown business owners and residents questioned whether the one-way option would relieve or worsen congestion during summer tourism peaks. A store owner at 311 Ocean, identifying the project schedule posted online, asked about the timing of construction and said the materials list “Q4 2026 begin construction”; the owner asked whether construction could be deferred from high season to reduce retail impacts. Staff said the schedule is still tentative and that the project would move into preliminary design after council direction, followed by planning commission design review and later construction bidding.

Residents raised multiple operational concerns about traffic flow, bus movements and cut-through behavior. One attendee warned that a one-way conversion could create a choke point near Whole Foods and Bank of America and make the adjacent intersection more dangerous during peak periods. Another resident predicted drivers would cut through parking lots and alleys to avoid congestion, potentially congesting service routes.

Several speakers urged the city to consult more extensively with downtown merchants before finalizing design choices. “If the business owners had been aware of these changes they would have come here,” one resident said, arguing earlier outreach would have produced better ideas. Staff acknowledged the outreach shortfall and said project notes and future communications will be posted on the project webpage; Alpha Santos, project manager for the effort, will accept written comments while staff incorporate public input into the Nov. 18 presentation.

Tree selection and maintenance also drew sustained comment. Attendees voiced a preference for native or locally appropriate trees and cautioned against species that produce excessive litter or require frequent replacement. Lee said many native street-tree options are deciduous and generate leaf litter, so the team prioritized drought-tolerant evergreens and species with manageable root profiles; a third-party arborist report will guide final species choices.

On funding, staff confirmed a capital improvement project exists for the downtown effort and that funds have been allocated for design and construction, though an engineer’s estimate is not yet complete. A staff member said the CIP originally included $1.5 million allocated toward the project, a figure the city said it would verify and clarify in follow-up materials.

Staff closed by asking attendees to submit additional comments ahead of the Nov. 18 council presentation. Sawaya said that meeting is intended to give council direction on the Lower Ocean one-way element; subsequent design and planning steps would follow and could include construction bidding in summer with construction later in the year if council so directs.

The town hall ended with staff thanking attendees and promising to post meeting notes and next steps on the project webpage.