Old Crab Zone Site to Become Carmelita's. Also, Gushing Hydrants!

The city planning commission on Wednesday approved a new Mexican food restaurant to occupy the space of the old Crab Zone at 215-217 Broadway. The Crab Zone closed about a year ago, and there were plans by the Chipotle chain to move into the location, but Chipotle was denied for a variety of reasons, including questionable upgrades to the building they wanted to implement, as well as parking and seating issues. The fact that the city's Downtown Specific Plan has a general disdain for large national chains (Chipotle has over 1,000 locations nationwide) also may have had something to do with it ...

Instead, Carmelita's, a small family-owned and operated chain with only three other locations, including one in Rancho Santa Margarita, will move in. No timetable as to when yet, but you can get an idea of their food by clicking here to see the RSM location's menu.

Meanwhile, in news from City Manager John Pietig's weekly update ... sunset concerts, gushing fire hydrants, Laguna Beach's awesome water quality, and more! Read on ...

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2011 Artist Designed Bench Competition - At its meeting on Monday, the Arts Commission reviewed finalist designs for an artist designed bench to be installed at the bus stop at Mountain and South Coast Highway. The Commission selected a design titled “Streamline Bench” by artist team Larry Gill and Gavin Heath. The bench will be created of stainless steel, concrete and hand-blown glass. Prior to City Council approval, the design will need to be reviewed by Caltrans and the Design Review Board. This program has been funded by the lodging establishments and the City of Laguna Beach.

September Sunset Serenades - The first of four concerts were held last Friday evening at the Rockpile amphitheater in Heisler Park. An estimated 250 people attended the concert. The concerts start at 5:30 p.m. and are free. The remaining concerts are 9/16 El Re’al Chamber Players, String Trio; 9/23 Kevin Kanner Trio, Jazz; and concludes 9/30 Roland and Adriane with piano and vocals. This program has been funded by the lodging establishments and the City of Laguna Beach.

Water District Hydrant Releases - The City has been informed by the Laguna Beach County Water District that they will be conducting hydraulic pressure testing next week. The testing procedures require fully opening fire hydrants to measure the available water pressure in adjacent areas. This will result in brief, but large, water flows being conveyed along gutter lines, into storm drains and a few out to the beach. The discharge points will be monitored by the Water District staff. Storm drains will be pre-flushed to clean the majority of material out of the storm drains and into the City’s urban water diversion units. Other discharge points will be sand bagged to contain and clean the resulting discharges. The goal of the testing is to develop a hydraulic model that will assist the Water District to identify pipelines requiring upgrades to improve the overall service pressure citywide. Questions can be answered by the Laguna Beach County Water District at (949) 494-1041.

Fire Department Resources Sent Out of County - On September 7th the Fire Department’s wild land engine, E-302, was requested as part of a Strike Team in response to anticipated extreme fire weather in Santa Barbara and Ventura Counties. Fortunately, no fires broke out during the weather event and E-302 was released on September 9th. E-302 was again requested on September 11th, along with Division Chief Tom Christopher as Strike Team Leader, to respond to Kern County for the Keene and Comanche Complex Fires. Over 50 separate wild land fires were started in Kern County from lightning strikes with over 40,000 acres burned on the Keene and Comanche Complex fires as of 9/13/11. E-302 and Chief Christopher are expected to be released on Thursday, September 15th.

Summer Festival Ridership Increase - Ridership on the summer Festival Transit service this summer was up nearly 20% over last summer. Last year the system carried 486,000 passengers. This summer’s total ridership was 581,000. This summer, the average number of passengers per day was 8,430.

Water Quality Report 2010 - The OC Health Care Agency has released its 2010 Annual Ocean, Harbor & Bay Water Quality Report. The report includes an analysis of bacteriological water quality data for Orange County’s recreational waters. Laguna Beach remains a leader in the region with nearly 100 percent compliance with water quality standards and second lowest beach closure rate in the past ten years.