Survey Says: City Polling Laguna Beach Residents On Quality-of-Life Issues

Laguna Beach City Manager John Pietig's weekly update:

2012 Citizen Survey - The City has contracted with the National Research Center, Inc. to conduct a community-wide survey of residents regarding the quality of life in the city and service delivery along with perspectives on city government performance.  A similar citizen survey was conducted in 2007.  Pre-survey notification postcards were mailed this week to a random sample of 1,200 households and the surveys will be mailed next week.  A reminder letter and a new survey will be mailed to the same households the week of March 19.  All individual surveys are returned to the National Research Center and will remain anonymous.  We hope to achieve a 25-40% response rate.  The results and reports from the National Research Center will be available in May.

Semper Memento - Art Star Award Finalist - The 9/11 Memorial, which incorporates steel beam artifacts retrieved from the World Trade Center, is one of three finalist nominated by the Laguna Beach Alliance for the Arts for Outstanding Arts Collaboration. The memorial sculpture, created by Jorg Dubin, is located at Monument Point in . The nomination recognizes the extraordinary community collaboration that took place to achieve this art-in-public-places project.  The event winners will be announced April 1, 2012 at the 6th annual Art Star Awards.

Mural Installation at 2133 Laguna Canyon Road - At its meeting on Monday, March 12, 2012, the Arts Commission will review a proposal by the Laguna College of Art and Design to . The mural, originally painted by students at the College, was painted over in February 2011. If approved, the mural will be painted by students attending the College led by artist Mia Tavonatti.

Lower Assessments in 9 of the 15 Assessment Districts - One thousand two hundred twenty-nine (1,229) parcels will see a reduction in the assessment district charges on their future property tax bills.  A refinancing to take advantage of lower interest rates reduced the assessments for districts 95-6, 99-2, 94-3, 06-2, 94-1, 07-2 and 99-1.  Construction and other savings reduced district 06-1 and paid off district 95-1 two years early.  Property owners can review their past property tax bills to determine if they are impacted.

Diamond Crestview Guard Rail Installation – Construction will begin next week to improve traffic safety at sixteen locations in the Diamond/Crestview neighborhood. The project includes the installation of weathering steel guard railing, asphalt curbs, asphalt paving and reflective markers.  Existing guard railings that are damaged will be replaced. The weathering steel guardrail is consistent with what was installed in the neighborhood 18 years ago. The work is scheduled to be completed by early May. This is the second and final phase of planned installations. The first phase was completed a little over four years ago.