Laguna Beach City Council Regular Meeting - April 9, 2013

April 9, 2013

Executive Summary

- The Laguna Beach City Council conducted a regular meeting on April 9, 2013, featuring proclamations honoring community volunteer Jean Ron on her 90th birthday and recognizing Soroptimist International of Laguna Beach's Healthy Girl Day on April 27, 2013. - The Council approved a comprehensive transit funding analysis and deferred a decision on hiring an outside consultant ($50,000) or using internal staff and the existing consultant Boyle Engineering ($10,000) to analyze transit system costs and ridership. - The Council voted to remove seven downtown trees (six ficus and two eucalyptus) causing severe sidewalk damage and instructed consultant Jim Dockstader to recommend replacement tree species, with one tree at 305 Forest Avenue spared temporarily due to its connection to a recently approved art project. - The Council approved a Laguna Canyon frontage road sidewalk extension between the pocket park and Woodland Drive, eliminating four parking spaces across from a mobile home park to preserve trees and planting areas, and directing staff to implement traffic calming measures including speed bumps and enhanced signage. - The Council received public comments on the community garden

Key Decisions

- Approved postponing the Village Entrance project report from May 7 to June 11, 2013 at 6:00 p.m. as a special meeting dedicated solely to that topic. - Approved directing staff to prepare proposals from transit system experts to review the city's transit system and provide options to modify mainline services, analyze revenue sources for the summer trolley service (non-farebox), and evaluate advertising opportunities on trolley interiors, with a budget of up to $50,000 for an outside expert analysis. - Approved removing seven downtown trees (six ficus trees and two eucalyptus trees) causing s