Residents press Laguna Beach on paid parking, trolley fees and marine-safety costs

Residents attending the town hall repeatedly framed visitor impacts as a major driver of city costs and urged measures that would shift those costs to visitors rather than residents.

"We're one of the only towns on PCH that I know of that has that much free parking in our town," said Greg Viviani, a long-time resident, urging conversion of identified PCH parking (he cited 361 east-side spaces and 232 coastal-side spaces) to paid parking. Multiple residents also suggested charging for the Laguna Local trolley or otherwise right-sizing the micro-transit system, which staff said costs about $48 per ride to operate in some contexts.

City Manager Dave Kiff said South Laguna paid parking is "right on our front burner" and staff is discussing a process with the Coastal Commission; he cautioned the Coastal Commission has authority over coastal-zone parking decisions and that any change must balance access and turnover. Kiff said staff proposed a 10% per-year parking-rate increase over five years that the planning commission recently adopted for consideration and that paid parking would likely require a coastal-development permit.

On marine safety, residents asked whether fewer coves could be left without lifeguards to reduce costs; Kiff said that is a "philosophical" choice involving safety and liability tradeoffs, though he acknowledged it could yield savings. He also noted a county-provided one-time fund the city has been drawing down (staff said roughly $20,000,000 previously supplied to the city for marine-safety uses) and warned those dollars will be gone in three to four years, requiring the city to either shift costs to the general fund or find reductions.

Next steps: staff is pursuing South Laguna paid-parking proposals with the Coastal Commission and has a consultant evaluating the Laguna Local trolley's costs and potential charges.