South County Beaches, Trails, Golf Courses Open, Parking Closed

LAGUNA BEACH, CA —During Tuesday's council meeting, Bartlett made the motion to close south county beaches during the heatwave expected for the weekend.

Summer weather is projected this weekend along Orange County's coastline. For coastal communities like Laguna Beach, with limited ingress and egress, too many visitors becomes a bottleneck, and with narrow shorelines, social distancing on the shores is all but impossible.

"We are extremely concerned that leaving the county beaches and trail heads open will put the health of our residents and those who come to the county beaches and trail heads at risk," Whalen wrote in a letter to Bartlett, Monday.

Laguna Beach experienced major social distancing issues with beaches and trails in late March and was one of the first cities in Orange County to close their beaches. The city moved swiftly to close the trail access to the county wilderness parks, as well as Main Beach, Heisler, and Treasure Island parks.

Though Bartlett attempted to follow through, the motion did not make it to a vote. After leading the charge to relax restrictions at golf courses, she turned the discussion to the coming heatwave and closing area beaches in addition to parking.

Bartlett said she fielded hours of calls over the weekend with requests on allowing some activity on the golf courses, but many were unsure of what should be allowed.

Whalen's concerns focus on south Laguna Beach residents, and risking them of exposure, he says. Having people congregate, even in family groups, means more trips to the grocery stores. More cars would arrive and fill up at area gas stations. The risk to area residents is exponential.

"With the number of confirmed coronavirus cases and deaths in the county and surrounding counties continuing to rise, this is exactly the wrong time to entice large crowds to the beaches and trails," Whalen wrote."We consider this an urgent matter for our city and are most hopeful that the Board will agree with the compelling reasons to approve these closures (Tuesday)."

Bartlett suggested to the supervisors that the shut down beaches and adjoining parks and trails because Orange County has become a destination since Los Angeles and San Diego counties shut down their beaches.

"We're getting inundated in our coastal communities from San Diego, Los Angeles and the Inland Empire," Bartlett said. "They're all coming down to our 42 miles of coastline."
Bartlett said coastal city constituents and elected leaders have been asking her for "relief."

Bartlett said the beachgoers were ignoring social distancing, and the problem will worsen as the weather heats up over the next week or so.

Wagner objected to beach closures saying, "We're opening up golf courses because people need to recreate but when the weather is good we're not going to let them recreate on our beaches and trails. There's no rhyme or reason here... Summer is coming... and we're all going to have to deal with it."

Bartlett said the difference is that San Diego and Los Angeles counties have completely closed beaches and adjoining parks and trails, so Orange County is now a magnet for those beachgoers.

"I appreciate that, but I don't think we should do the wrong thing... just because our colleagues... did the wrong thing burdening their residents," Wagner replied.

Chaffee said he went to Aliso Beach late last month and did not see large crowds of people violating social distancing.

"I think what's working well now is shutting down our parking (lots)" to the beaches, Chaffee said.

The supervisors backed Bartlett's motion to allow for recreation on the golf courses, but rejected her attempt to provide specific guidelines for the golf course managers such as a prohibition on the use of golf carts. They discoursed on likely rules and regulations for hitting the links, but could not reach an accord.

"Spending 20 minutes discussing golf courses is probably something the public doesn't want to hear from us," Do said. "If we're going to have guidance, then let's make it broad and not get into the weeds. This is a step in the right direction."

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