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REGULAR ORDER OF BUSINESS
Recreation Committee update, no vote required
Curtiss Alderson, chair of the city's Recreation Committee, reported that city parks had been refurbished, with work to begin Monday on Moulton Meadows. Tennis courts at Laguna Beach High School have come up for improvement.
Installation of the Main Beach play equipment is due to start this month.
The committee has been operating with five members, rather than seven, and still doing a great job, according to Alderson.
He thanked Egly for her support as council liaison to the committee.
Hospitality Night activities, Winter Fantasy parking, approved 5-0
Santa Claus will arrive at City Hall on Dec. 7 to open Hospitality Night activities.
The City Council voted unanimously to return to the traditional lighting of the pepper tree to kick off the holiday season, which was relocated last year to Forest Avenue to accommodate expected traffic from the Laguna Beach High School's semi-final football game.
City staff liked the relocation because it minimized traffic impacts and recommended the tree lighting ceremony stay on Forest Avenue, but the council did not favor the recommendation.
The council approved closure of portions of Forest Avenue, Beach and Third streets and the pepper tree parking lot, and restricted parking on Forest Avenue. It also approved amplified sound for the night of the festivities, considered to be one of the highlights of the year by locals.
Free parking was approved on Laguna Canyon Frontage Road on Nov. 23 to 24, and reserved parking, as necessary, on Laguna Canyon Road during the Sawdust Festival Winter Fantasy.
Council considers Real Property Report time-requirement change, 5-0
The council gave preliminary approval to the proposed extension from three months to six months for a property owner to obtain a real property report from the city.
Reports include delinquent city utility charges and the regularly authorized use, occupancy and zoning classification for the property.
The change was discussed by the Laguna Board of Realtors representatives and city staff as a means of improving customer service.
Board members indicated that escrows often take longer than three months and extensions had to be requested, a cumbersome process.
A second reading is required for passage. Second readings are included in the Consent Calendar, but may be pulled for discussion by a member of the public or the council.
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