Laguna Beach candidates address development in online forum

Candidates for the Laguna Beach City Council convened for a virtual forum over Zoom on Friday with a chance to distinguish themselves to the city’s registered voters.

Incumbents in the race are Mayor Bob Whalen and Mayor Pro Tem Steve Dicterow, while Ruben Flores, Larry Nokes and George Weiss are running as challengers. All participated in the forum, which was hosted by the Laguna Beach Chamber of Commerce.

The opening question created a back-and-forth discussion. It concerned a ballot initiative for a future election that would require major development projects to go to a vote of the people after it had gone through review by city staff and been approved by the City Council.

Weiss separated himself as a proponent of the initiative, saying that nearby Costa Mesa, Dana Point and Newport Beach have all established or passed similar initiatives.

“You’ve just got to bring out the vote, for or against it,” Weiss said. “That’s the democratic process.”

Whalen said he believed in the city’s process for approving development projects. He said that it has led to few projects as is, citing the Coast Inn as one, and added that he felt it was unnecessary to further impede development.

“We’ve got a good process,” Whalen said. “I believe in our staff. I believe in our planning commission. I believe in our design review board, and ultimately, I believe in our City Council.”

Nokes began the evening by saying he wanted to ease regulations to help bring in businesses that residents frequent outside of the town, and fittingly, he was against the initiative, calling the extra step “too cumbersome.”

“I think it’s going to discourage anybody from coming here and trying to do anything at all,” Nokes said. “We have our property development standards. We need to guard those jealously.”

Dicterow, who has served on the council for 20 years, said that elections for development projects would be time-consuming and expensive, especially for the applicant.

He added in his opening remarks that a primary concern of his is “taking back our streets and neighborhoods from the day-trippers that come to town” because of the impact on the quality of life for residents.

In his opening statement, Flores stressed the need for kindness. It has not always been the case in council meetings. In the last meeting, Councilwoman Toni Iseman appeared to be the target of profane language.

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