Laguna Beach City Council Backtracks on Building Regulations After Lawsuit

Laguna Beach City Council Backtracks on Ordinance 1675, regarding building regulations, after being hit with a lawsuit and voters speak out. 

The Laguna Beach City Council has backtracked on strict regulations regarding large developments within the city after a nearly two year volley with residences and a lawsuit. 

At the end of May, the city council announced the repeal of a 2022 law that gave regulations around structure sizing for new developments after a lawsuit was handed to them by a local development firm, according to the Los Angeles Times. 

Within the now repealed 2022 law, Ordinance 1675, projects larger than 15,000 square feet and parking lot combinations near the city’s downtown were prevented from being built, as well as additional parts of a building pushing them over 36 feet tall, the Voice of OC reported.  

The ordinance sought to make any sights larger than 15,000 square feet appear as a two or more development project in order to “avoid the appearance of a single large project.”

By 2022, however, local development firm Laguna Beach Company sued the city over the ordinance, claiming that it violated the law and was discriminating against their business. 

“The City is unfairly targeting and discriminating against Laguna Beach Company properties because of Laguna Beach Company’s open discussions about potential future developments on those properties,” the lawsuit states. “Such targeting and discrimination against a particular property owner is impermissible.”

The development company argued that the regulations violated multiple state laws, some including the prevention of multi-residential housing developments with affordable units, which would allegedly violate California housing laws, according to the Voice of OC.  

In addition to the lawsuit, the city council was handed a referendum in which over 1,000 city voters signed a document to repeal the ordinance, forcing the council members to either strip the law altogether or have it put on the ballot for the public to vote on, according to the Voice of OC. 

During a meeting, the council then decided in a 3-0 vote that the ordinance would be completely repealed, asking staff to bring an possible substitute version that could both comply with state law and avoid legal repercussions, the outlet reported. 

“It’s irresponsible to put something on the ballot that has a legal flaw in it,” Councilmember Sue Kempf said during the meeting, according to the outlet . “You just don’t do that. It’s not responsible by the council, and it’s a terrible idea.”

“But I support everything that we put in here, and I want to make sure that we get it legally right,” Kempf continued. “I think if we do that, we’ll have a really good ordinance and we’ll have something that we can be proud of, but we can’t put anything on that ballot that has inherent flaws.”