Defending Village Laguna
Village Laguna, a 47-year-old, local and purely volunteer membership organization, is now being targeted by a few potential city council candidates and called a “danger” to our Village.
I have been a member of Village Laguna since the days they were fighting to have the Treasure Island Park and beaches preserved for residents. At that time, the developers of the Montage wanted to close the beach for the exclusive use of their “Hotel Guests”. Since I lived nearby, I wanted to preserve resident access to Treasure Island’s beautiful coves. Village Laguna was one of many groups who banded together to fight this land grab by out-of-town financial interests looking to maximize their profits by taking our beaches.
I stayed a member of Village Laguna when I saw that they had a proud history of fighting to preserve, protect and improve those features of our town that makes us so unique. Let’s count the ways Village Laguna has been at the forefront of so many good initiatives:
1. Preventing the building of multi-story hotel towers along our bluff tops and beachfronts through the passage of the heights ordinance.
2. Saving Aliso Creek and Canyon from being channeled and helping restore it to as natural state as possible.
3. Helping to buy the open space that surrounds Laguna and preventing it from development.
4. Helping to create the Laguna Canyon Foundation to manage our open space and to continue to add to it while preserving our amazing green footprint throughout the Village.
5. Helping to preserve the historic character of our village through education and advocacy for proper restoration and reasonable expansion.
6. Preserving the “Resident Serving” business focus in our downtown. (It’s why there are no box stores here or designer boutiques like are found in so many malls and tourist traps across the world.)
7. Supporting the Marine Preserve that is making our beaches safer and healthier.
8. Advocating against the commercialization of our beaches and preventing food stands and beach rentals from establishing a foothold.
9. Supporting quality education in our local schools so they remain vibrant and magnets for our best students.
10. Working to reduce vehicle traffic in our downtown through support for trolleys and peripheral parking during the summer months.
I hope the reader gets my point. There are so many other critically important initiatives supported by Village Laguna members over the years that this letter could run into multiple pages.
When I hear false criticisms of Village Laguna, they sound like projection from financially focused groups that want to monetize our infrastructure, degrade our environment, eliminate any opposition to the destruction of our neighborhoods, and wish to have true control over our city government for their financial benefit.
The reason why so many residents have supported Village Laguna over the years is that they know that Village Laguna members are committed to the task of preserving what Laguna means to all of us. As a membership organization comprised primarily of local citizens who freely donate their time to its work and expect and receive no financial benefits, many Laguna residents consider Village Laguna our “Citizen watchdog” making sure that our civic leaders do what they promise and help pass laws and regulations that protect our wonderful town.
Laguna would not be the jewel that attracts millions of visitors if our many volunteer civic organizations did not work every day to preserve its best qualities. I am so proud to be a resident of Laguna Beach and a volunteer member of Village Laguna. You are invited to participate in this important work.
Armando Baez
Laguna Beach