Planning commission reviews concept designs for Mermaid Parking Lot beautification

City staff and designers presented concept designs April 1 for a beautification project at the Mermaid Parking Lot (348 Glen Eyrie Street), and the Planning Commission offered design guidance and public comment.

Christian Sanford, project manager with the City of Laguna Beach Department of Public Works and Utilities, said the proposal aims to refresh the parking-lot entrance without removing parking spaces, add low seating planter walls with a mosaic "crazy quilt" brick veneer, install drought-tolerant plantings, add a decorative brick paving band at the vehicle/pedestrian entry, and relocate the pay station and a new combined trash-and-recycling receptacle. "Our project objectives are to refresh the entrance to the parking lot without removing any of the function or reducing the parking spaces of the current lot," Sanford said.

Evan Lee of SWA Group described details of the low seating walls and said the crazy-quilt veneer would face the exterior and the interior-facing side would be a standard low wall; the walls are designed to fit within the footprint of the existing planters so no parking spaces would be lost. Staff said existing magnolia trees would be preserved and that plant choices would focus on shade-tolerant, drought-resilient species.

Commissioners asked about material durability, skateboard deterrence, whether the brick band could use a more articulated pattern (for example herringbone), and how to ensure plantings thrive in a shaded downtown pocket. Pierre Sawyer, capital program manager, said the project is currently scoped as a CIP project without a firm cost estimate and the goal is to deliver it this year if feasible. "Since we're still in the conceptual design phase, we don't have a firm cost estimate, but it is currently looked at as a CIP project for public works to deliver," he said.

Public comment included support from Dora Orgill, president of the Laguna Beach Beautification Council, who said the council has worked with the city and SWA for two to three years and urged the commission to move the project forward. Resident Nick Aronoff urged visual coordination with the nearby promenade and requested cost information. Commissioners broadly praised the concept as a high-value, low-cost intervention, recommended pursuing public-art opportunities in the design, and urged staff to identify qualified artisans for the crazy-quilt brickwork and to consider plant palettes proven to succeed in shaded locations.

No formal action or vote was recorded; staff will take the commission’s feedback into design development and return with refined plans and cost estimates.