Act V lot opens after upgrades

Summer crowds heading for Laguna Beach’s art festivals will be able to park in a little more style this season.

The Act V parking lot on the north side of Laguna Canyon Road between the Day Labor Center and Laguna College of Art and Design is newly renovated and improved to give visitors a convenient place to park.

The lot, which will open Tuesday, can hold 264 vehicles including seven handicapped accessible spaces.

It has a strip of paved stalls which will be reserved for employees working in the City Yard when it’s completed on the site. The rest of the lot is made of gravel as it has been in the past.

Wade Brown, the project director for Act V, said the gravel is important for water quality control. He said the permeable surface enables rainwater and runoff from the surrounding hills to be absorbed into the ground, limiting the runoff that will reach the ocean.

The lot now has planters with trees, light fixtures, and landscaped areas near the entrance.

It will also host art elements from local artists which will be unveiled at the First Thursdays Art Walk on July 5.

The lot will have regular portable restrooms instead of the executive restroom trailers that were a part of the original proposal for the project. The City Council found the executive restrooms to be too expensive.

There will be a $5 parking fee to use the lot. It will be free for vehicles that have Laguna Beach shopper permits.

Art festival patrons will also be able to park at Laguna College of Art and Design on the weekends, also for $5. Trolleys to the festivals will be available at both places.

Season passes will be available for $20.

The lot is paid for as a joint venture by the City of Laguna Beach, the Sawdust Festival, Art-A-Fair, and the Festival of the Arts, all of which share the services of the lots, as well as the expense.

The City Council voted on June 5 to send a letter to the Laguna Playhouse and ask for them to voluntarily help pay for the parking lot as well. Mayor Toni Iseman, who wrote the letter, was unavailable to comment.

Behind the Act V parking lot, the new City Yard is under construction.

The $8.4 million yard is where Public Works will have its headquaters and it will house repair shops mechanic shops for fixing city equipment like Trolleys.

“Everything in the facility will be newer and work more reliably,” Brown said.

The new city yard is expected to be completed around January 2008.

The current City Yard sits on the corner of Broadway and Forest Avenue. The city plans to build a parking structure on the site after the yard moves to its new location.

The Act V parking lot will officially open June 26 and the Trolleys will begin running on June 29.