"I have always felt that every city should have a piazza, and this is now our piazza," local sculptor Gerard Basil Stripling said on September 25, while more than 500 people filled lower Forest Avenue under a full moon.
Stripling has traveled widely, and he described the piazzas he has seen as places where people "gather, meet, have fun, drink, eat, and talk." The promenade has been physically done since summer. The city waited until fall to make it official, and that choice explains a lot about how downtown will run between now and the end of the year.
Why the ribbon waited until late September
Mayor Mark Orgill told the Laguna Beach Indy that the plaza had been finished for more than a month before the ceremony. He said the city "thought that it was an appropriate time to do the ribbon cutting and announce the grand opening of the promenade before we get into the fall and winter months where we start to have hospitality night and some of the other events."
So the official opening was timed to the start of the village's busiest civic season. It did not mark the end of construction. The finishing work ran right up to the deadline. At a September 22 City Council meeting, City Manager Dave Kiff said the brickwork at the northern end was laid, work remained at the Coast Highway end facing Main Beach, and full electrical service to the fountain, audio system and Wi-Fi was expected that Wednesday.
The city's design for the block between Glenneyre Street and Coast Highway lists pavers, wider walkways in front of storefronts, seating and dining areas, performance space, lighting, drainage and new plantings. In his Daily Pilot interview, Orgill compared it with the town's other venues. "You go to the [Laguna] Playhouse, you're in seating," he said. "You go to the Cultural Arts Center, you're primarily seated. It's a different experience. [At] the promenade, you can listen to music and you can socialize at the same time."
Twenty-seven years from a plan to pavers
The idea is older than most of the businesses on the block. Orgill said that 27 years ago, the community's Vision 2030 plan flagged closing Forest Avenue to create a downtown social space. COVID then gave the city a chance to try it. The promenade started as a pilot program to help downtown businesses through pandemic restrictions. City officials later pushed to close the lower block to cars for good.
Orgill said more than 2,000 people took part in the visioning process, and that the California Coastal Commission approved the project unanimously. In January, the council awarded the construction contract to Superb Engineering. Businesses stayed open through construction, with narrow walkways running past the fenced work zone.
The dedication also celebrated two businesses that predate the permanent plaza. Bushard's Pharmacy marked 80 years and Moulin cafe marked 10, with a shared birthday cake and Moulin staff handing out baked goods. Guests ate at tables under umbrellas outside Alessa while the 133 Band played. Planning commissioner and artist George Dubin, who helped get the promenade built, described a simpler routine. "I come down here and sit and just enjoy watching the sun go down," he said.
A new reason to walk two blocks over
The plaza got a new neighbor the same week. One couple at the dedication told the Indy they planned to "check out the Surfing Heritage and Culture Center because it's open now."
SHACC opened its new downtown home the weekend before the dedication. It spent about 20 years in an industrial building in San Clemente, where much of the collection was out of public view. Founder Dick Metz, 97, was surfing in Hawaii by 1950 and started collecting old wooden boards back when few people thought to save them. He chose the 1939 building for its high ceilings, size, parking and short walk to the beach. According to SHACC, the institution was founded in 2000.
Here is what to know before you go:
- Where: The museum lists 232 Ocean Ave. as its main entrance and parking address. The Broadway/PCH transit stop is two blocks east.
- Cost and hours: Free. Open Tuesday through Sunday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Closed Mondays.
- What's inside: Boards line the walls in order of surfing history, from Hawaii through California, and include five that belonged to Duke Kahanamoku. The first rotating exhibit, "PAE KA NALU: Catch the Wave," covers surfing's Hawaiian origins.
- Plan around this: From October 17 to 25, SHACC is open only to Coast Film Festival ticket holders.
The building's historian, Chris Mauro, a former editor of Surfer magazine, called the walk along the walls "your time capsule."
The fall calendar the ribbon-cutting was timed for
The city's regular music series on the promenade ran Friday through Sunday evenings, 5:30 to 7:30 p.m., and ended August 30. The published lineup stops there. October's programming is happening around the plaza more than on it.
| Dates | Event | Where |
|---|---|---|
| Oct. 3–11 | 28th Laguna Plein Air Painting Invitational, with 30 invited artists and an art festival on Oct. 11 | Around town |
| Through Oct. 11 | "Lagunatics: May the Farce Be With You," No Square Theatre's local satire | Historic Legion Hall, 384 Legion St. |
| Starts Oct. 16 | Coast Film & Music Festival, a 10-day run | Multiple venues |
| Oct. 23–25 | Coast closing-weekend concerts with Ben Harper, Amos Lee, Donavon Frankenreiter and G. Love | Irvine Bowl |
| Nov. 1–9 | Laguna Art Museum's Art + Nature Celebration Week | Museum and around town |
| Nov. 5–9 | Kim Manfredi's "A Flag Walk for Our Future" | Heisler Park accessible path |
| Fri., Dec. 4 | Hospitality Night, about 5 to 9 p.m. | Main stage on Forest Avenue |
Lagunatics fits this moment well. The Indy says this year's show includes musical takes on the trees on the Forest Avenue Promenade. At the dedication, Orgill said "the trees will grow," and that the space will look better over time.
Hospitality Night is the event Orgill named when he explained the timing, and it is the first big civic night on the finished plaza. The city's tentative schedule puts the main stage on Forest Avenue, with performances by Anneliese School, Susannah B & the Lowkeys, and Earl Thomas. Parts of Forest Avenue will close during the event.
The calendar is shorter by one fixture this year. The Taste of Laguna Food & Music Festival, planned for October 1, was cancelled. Organizers cited unforeseen circumstances and said the 2027 event will be a centennial celebration.
The rest of downtown is following the Forest Avenue template
The promenade began as a temporary pandemic measure and became permanent. Other pandemic-era arrangements downtown are now on their own path to permanence.
On September 22, the City Council advanced proposed blended parking standards for commercial uses and sent them to workshops without adopting them. It also directed staff to help businesses with temporary outdoor dining get permits by January 1, 2027. The proposed exemption for outdoor dining tops out at 500 square feet and five parking spaces.
The next block is also in planning. The city is redesigning Ocean Avenue and Beach Street and has scheduled a public town hall for October 20, with construction forecast for fall 2027. Closer in, the Downtown Zone 4 street overlay and walkway project includes slurry sealing, pavement and sidewalk replacement, and temporary traffic controls. The city page still lists it as awaiting a final schedule, with a projected December 2026 finish.
Late fall also brings median planting and irrigation work on Coast Highway between Montage Resort Drive and Catalina Street. Expect temporary lane closures on weekdays between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m.
Getting to the plaza after losing 48 spaces
Making the promenade permanent removed the roadway, curbs and street parking on that block. In January, the Daily Pilot reported that the city would lose 48 parking spaces for good. The closest public alternatives according to current city listings:
- Broadway Lot 1: 25 spaces, $4 per hour, three-hour limit.
- Peppertree Lot 2: 36 spaces, same rate and limit. On Hospitality Night, the city closes this lot to cars because the evening starts there.
- Glenneyre Structure Lot 6: 208 spaces, the largest of the three, same rate and limit.
- Library Lot 23: 30 spaces at $4 per hour, open to the public Monday through Thursday after 7 p.m., Friday and Saturday after 5 p.m., and all day Sunday.
You can also skip parking entirely. The off-season trolley schedule runs from September 8, 2026, through June 25, 2027. The free Coastal Route runs daily, with longer hours on Friday and Saturday evenings. Laguna Local offers free on-demand rides around neighborhoods. Residents also had to renew parking permits after July 31 through the city's new online portal, and the city required every applicant to create an account, including those applying in person or by mail.
Many of our clients split their time between the desert and the Orange County coast, so we keep track of changes like Forest Avenue for them. If you'd like to talk about how downtown Laguna is changing, or how a plan like Ocean Avenue's might affect a block you care about, the DWA Team is happy to follow it with you, starting with the town hall on October 20.
