City to Prepare a Downtown Laguna Beach Parking Management Plan

Story submitted by the City of Laguna Beach.

Members of the public are invited to participate in a Community Workshop that is designed to spark discussions and generate ideas for the upcoming Parking Management Plan for Downtown Laguna Beach and Laguna Canyon Road.

The workshop will take place on Wednesday, December 19 from 6:30-8 p.m. at the Suzi Q Senior/Community Center.

The Community Workshop welcomes community members to get involved in helping to maximize the City’s public parking through the use of innovative parking management strategies and new parking technologies.

About the Parking Management Plan

The Downtown and Laguna Canyon Road area contains over 2,000 public parking spaces plus a number of publicly accessible privately-owned parking spaces. Demand for these spaces is generated by a variety of users including residents, employers/employees, and visitors (beach-goers, retail patrons, restaurant/bar patrons, festival attendees/participants, etc.). The new Parking Management Plan will be designed to specifically address these unique parking demands and will contain dynamic components and strategies to be responsive to the variations in parking demand.

Over the years the City has accumulated a significant amount parking data and information that will serve as a foundation to develop the Parking Management Plan. This background information, along with new parking technology and best practices will be combined with input from the Laguna Beach community, City staff, and decision-makers to maximize the effectiveness of existing and publicly accessible parking resources in the study area.

The Parking Management Plan process was initiated in April 2012. RBF Consulting has been hired by the City to assist in the preparation of the Plan. The process includes three distinct phases: (1) Review and analyze existing data and evaluate opportunities for improvement, (2) Collect supplemental data from the field and the community and prepare draft recommendations, and (3) Prepare final recommendations for the Parking Management Master Plan.

The Community Workshop in December will assess parking opportunities, constraints, policy analysis, options and alternatives.  The workshop will invite participants, business owners and residents alike, to discuss Laguna Beach’s parking assets, challenges, and ideas for the future.

More Information

The City’s website (www.lagunabeachcity.net) provides a link to additional information on the Parking Management Master Plan.

For more information, contact the Planning Division at 949-497-0745.