An hour after the big game, Visit Newport Beach will host a 1,000-drone light show over Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas. Along with paying tribute to the winner, the display will include images of Newport Beach. It will last 12 minutes and be visible from the stadium, the Las Vegas Strip and will be live-streamed.

“Our goal in terms of positioning Newport Beach is making sure we’re part of popular culture and engaged in an event people are talking about,” said Gary Sherwin, the tourism bureau’s president and CEO.

Visit Newport Beach “did outreach” in Arizona last year when it hosted the Super Bowl and had a float in this year’s Tournament of Roses Parade.

The “Touch Down Newport Beach” drone show will celebrate football’s biggest day of the year, but is also meant to get Super Bowl fans to begin thinking of summer vacations or a place for meetings. Las Vegas is among the city’s target markets and is only a 40-minute flight away.

Those watching Sunday will be able to win a two-day stay at the Balboa Bay Resort by capturing a QR code on their phone from the drone display.

If they win, besides staying at the waterfront property along Pacific Coast Highway, they’ll also be treated to an electric boat cruise, a two-hour Moke cart rental, $500 in food and beverage credits, and a $200 gift card to Fashion Island, the city’s popular outdoor shopping center.

And if the light show doesn’t get people hyped enough, Visit Newport is also launching a commercial tailored to football fans that will air in 60,000 hotel rooms along the Las Vegas strip. Sherwin said Visit Newport Beach did something similar during Super Bowl LVII hosted at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona.

“Some of our most important markets are Las Vegas and Phoenix,” Sherwin said. “This gives us another opportunity to attach ourselves to the Super Bowl.”

Sherwin said the drone display is being flown an hour after the Super Bowl to avoid the hefty price tag that could come from dealing directly with the NFL. Still, it’s costing the marketing group $100,000.

Each year, Newport Beach draws about 7.5 million visitors. “The city takes in about $35 to $40 million each year of hotel taxes, which doesn’t include retail sales,” Sherwin said. “The total economic impact is about a $1 billion industry.”

Visit Newport Beach spends about $10 million annually to market the city. Half of that is raised from the hotels; the other part comes from the 10% assessment tacked onto a night stay by the city, which gives the tourism bureau 18% and uses the rest for public needs such as infrastructure and roads.

Sherwin said the Rose Parade float – it was the longest in the parade’s history at 165 feet – has already proven successful in drawing people to the city – event planners have reported more interest in having meetings in town. He said the parade had a worldwide audience of almost 7 billion people.

“From an awareness standpoint, it was a great hit,” he said. “We’re really excited about this one.”

The area – where two homes were already affected by unstable soil – is an active landslide on private property that has had ongoing movement for several decades, said Dave Rebensdorf, the city’s assistant engineer who went out Friday to check on it.

“Unfortunately, the recent movement has furthered damaged the end of the city’s Columbo cul-de-sac,” he said. “City crews have installed sandbags to route drainage from the cul-de-sac to an existing storm drain.”

Dave Peterson, who lives on Columbo but not on the failing end, went there to see the damage for himself.

“It’s not yet impacting houses, but there are houses to the left and right that are close to the slide,” he said. “I’m concerned about those.”

Councilmember Steve Knoblock also visited.  He is familiar with the area and said, a few years ago, the city had to red-tag a house that was later condemned and bulldozed down the hillside because of the slope’s instability.

In Dana Point, some mud and debris slid from a cliff next to the Ocean Institute near the tidepools, said City Manager Mike Killebrew.

“There are no structures jeopardized at this point, and it looks like no impact on the lateral beach access,” he said.

Dana Point Harbor Partners won a 66-year lease in 2018 from the OC Board of Supervisors to renovate the 53-year-old county harbor, including the 120,000-square-foot area of the harbor that will house shops, restaurants, public gathering spaces and an expansive boardwalk connecting Doheny State Beach to Baby Beach.

“This is a milestone,” Bryon Ward, president of Burnham Ward Properties and the development partner heading up the commercial core overhaul, said of Wednesday’s ceremonial groundbreaking at the site where the parking structure will go. The event included community, county and city leaders and harbor merchants, and the development partners presented the timeline guiding the harbor project forward, which is projected to take five to six more years.

Work on the new  2,265-slip marina is already underway, with 772 completed. There will also be additional guest boat slips, which aren’t included in the count. Joe Ueberroth, of Bellwether Financial Group, is handling those renovations.

Bob Olson, of R.D. Olson, rounds out the development partnership and is working on entitlements through the California Coastal Commission for two new hotels.

“We spent 2020 and 2021 redesigning and permitting everything,” Ward said of the commercial core element, adding that they were postured to start earlier but, because of the market’s volatility and inflation, had to figure out new financing for the project, now projected at $600 million.

They also had to negotiate new utility permits with the South Coast Water District, he said. “Everything needed to be upgraded.”

The parking structure will be built on the left side of Golden Lantern at the entrance of Dana Point Harbor. It will be three levels, but won’t obscure a view of the new buildings or the water, the developer said.

The structure will also have boater services, including restrooms, showers, changing rooms, e-charging stations and dedicated parking for people going sportfishing and whale watching and those transiting on the Catalina Express. There will be 984 stalls, including 98 dedicated boater spaces.

“It’s not going to look like a big concrete structure,” Ward said, adding that there will be valet services and a gangway where boaters can wheel their gear down to the dock and launch pads. Mature trees will be planted to line the extension of Golden Lantern.

The construction of the structure, landscaping, and hardscapes, including the new harbor boardwalk that will be doubled in width and surrounded by a greenbelt, should be done in a year to 14 months, which completes the first two phases of the project plans, Ward said. From there, Ward said he will begin work on the new buildings near the waterfront as Phase 3 and then turn his attention to Dana Wharf.

Ward said $50 million has already been invested in the project for entitlements, design work, consultants, and geotechnical soil issues.

But with inflation and rising construction costs, the partners have had to find new financing for the renovations. Each phase will be financed independently, Ward said. As one is finished, the next will be financed. Financing for the parking structure and the accompanying amenities are secured, he said.

“We’re trying to upgrade everything without losing the charm Dana Point is,” he said. “A lot is visible and some is not. When you live with a project for five years, you get a better feel for the conditions.”

As the parking structure work gets underway, those with businesses in the harbor and people visiting won’t see a lot of negative impacts, Ward said. All the work will be confined behind the site’s fence for the first six months. When that work is completed, access will be flip-flopped so as not to impede traffic or pedestrians, he said.

All harbor businesses will remain open.

Work on the seven waterfront buildings will begin as the first phases wind down, Ward said. As that gets underway, he said more discussions will be held with existing tenants to “determine their desire to remain in the project,” he said.

“I’m optimistic we’ll have 100% of the project committed before we finish the waterfront,” he said, adding that he expects a mix of tenants and a culturally diverse mix of food offerings from independent and regional operators.

“It won’t all be seafood,” he said.

Among some of those tenants is Jim Miller, who operates the popular Coffee Importers and the Scoop Deck. While he said he would remain in his present buildings until he can’t, he is working on an option for a space at the Ocean Institute, where the former gift shop existed. If that plan works out, he said he will add a patio and a bakery – it’s been a goal to include his daughter, an executive pastry chef, in the business.

The location there would allow him to coordinate events with the Ocean Institute while still drawing his regular customers. And, he said he’s still open to also having a presence in the commercial core.

“It takes pressure off (Ward) if he doesn’t have a place for me right away, and it keeps my employees working that I’ve had for 15 years,” Miller said.

But on Wednesday, Miller was most enthusiastic about the parking structure. He also provided coffee and food for the event.

“I’ve been waiting for that since 1998,” he said, adding that he spent three decades talking with harbor’s first business owner, Don Hansen, the founder of Dana Wharf Sportfishing and Whale Watching, about how the merchants could get one built. Hansen was active in pushing for the structure up until his death in 2022.

Hansen pushed the topic with then-Supervisor Tom Wilson and the first steps in a harbor revitalization were born.

“I’m sad Don isn’t here to see it; we spent 30 years talking about it,” Miller said.

Still, Donna Kalez, Hansen’s daughter, who now runs the family business, was excited to see her father’s dream materialize. The whale-watching and fishing charter business is located on the wharf, which will be the last section to be built and will include five new buildings.

“We’ve been telling everyone it’s coming,” she said. “For me, it’s bittersweet because my dad isn’t here to see it, but he’ll be watching from above. I’ve ben waiting for this moment forever.”

The break under a retaining wall along Sunset Avenue occurred during the early morning hours, leading a resident on Virginia Way about 100 yards below to call the city at 3 a.m.

“I started seeing mud in my backyard and got up and started checking all the drains to make sure nothing was clogged,” said Marie Clark.

The scenario was a frightening reminder of a similar problem in March when her backyard was filled with mud, rocks and debris when a sinkhole broke loose, tossing a Range Rover into a 10-foot hole.

Crews were able to pull the car out, but neighbors below the location had significant damage and dealt with ongoing repairs done for months by the South Coast Water District. The sinkhole was finally repaired late in 2023.

Clark and neighbor Caroline Hamner walked to the location on Sunset and saw the “undermined street” right next to the original sinkhole.

“Our eyes popped out of our head when we saw it,” Clark said, adding that residents now worry about what impact the weight of mud could have on water and gas lines beneath the ground there.

“Part of the hillside had washed down,” Hamner said. “A lot of foilage has helped the slope, but we worry what happens if it gets worse.”

City and water district crews are on site. Sandbags have also been placed near the start and end of the debris field and water has been shut off to some of the homes.

Brendan Manning, the city’s emergency operations coordinator, said the road has been closed due to stability concerns.

Mike Tompkins, a general contractor who spent months watching the sinkhole in front of his house being repaired, worries that the problem is related to the 100-year-old roadway.

He described last year’s incident as a “hydro blast blowing the hillside away.”

This time, the impacted area happened in a location with “a chronic drainage issue” where water has consistently pooled and the street appears to have failed under a nearby block wall, he said.

“Because it’s a puddle, it takes drainage from all the homes above, and suddenly the street has a new drain,” he said of the weakened area. “This should be an indication that the street has been a problem all along. It’s a 100-year-old street that was never constructed by today’s standards and is failing.”

Sunset is closed between 10th Avenue and Virginia Way.

Meanwhile, most other areas of the city have not had many issues, Manning said. There have been a few incidents of rocks and mud on the roads with an “occasional, short-term closure.”

“We have also had some temporary beach closures due to sand shifts at the bottom of the access stairs,” he said. “Marine Safety is continuing to monitor those areas of concern.”

The temporarily closed beaches include Victoria Beach off Drummond Street, Thousands Steps Beach and Bluebird Beach near the ramp access.

Marine Safety Capt. Kai Bond said he’s unsure of when the closures will reopen and it will depend on the sand conditions.

“It depends on what Mother Nature does,” he said. “The sand has been redistributing plenty of times.”

King tides – which can bring unusually high water levels – are forecast for Feb. 9, but Bond said a lot can happen between then and now. If the sand doesn’t naturally move back to help with access points, Bond said, the city’s Public Works crew will lend some help.

Orange County and the rest of Southern California got hit with a steady rainfall Monday, when a storm parked itself over the region.

Officials along Orange County’s coast were carefully monitoring vulnerable sections of their hillsides Monday where tarps already covered several previous landslides.

“We’re just telling everybody to be incredibly cautious,” said State Parks Superintendent Kevin Pearsall. “Get updated before you go to a destination. Just check and make sure you can get there. Keep safety in mind.”

Bolsa Chica State Beach was closed due to flooding and campers at Doheny State Beach were asked to voluntarily evacuate as Monday’s storm slammed the region.

“There’s literally no access to Bolsa,” said Pearsall, noting that Pacific Coast Highway was also flooded and closed.

Some campers at Doheny State Beach set up in RVs opted to stay, while others who wanted to cancel their reservations were given a refund, he said.

State Parks also issued a notice that backcountry closures were in place at Crystal Cove State Parks to mitigate trail erosion.

In San Clemente, there continued to be some visible movement in the soil where a landslide Jan. 24 damaged a section of the Mariposa Bridge along the city’s popular beach trail and cutoff train service south to San Diego because debris was reaching the nearby train tracks. But restoration of a culvert system appears to have been effective, according to an update by Metrolink spokesperson Scott Johnson.

Passenger train service continues to be halted through San Clemente, but freight rail traffic has resumed.

“There are continual visual and electronic measurements taking place of the hillside,” Johnson said of the hillside monitoring that continues.

Officials announced last week a wall will be built to protect the track in that area.

On Monday, officials sent out an alert that two more sections of the city’s popular beach trail were closed because of concerns over recent slope movement and the threat of more rain in the forecast.

A small slide near the El Portal steps happened early Friday prior to the storm, occurring behind the fence already in place to keep people off the trail near the previous landslide area, Councilmember Chris Duncan said.

The other minor landslide happened south of the pier, where rocks came down onto the trail.  The city closed the trail from the Boca Del Canon access point to the Lasuen access point.

“It came and spilled on the trail a bit, for safety reasons we shut down that part,” Duncan said. “That hasn’t really happened before. We’re worried that there might be other areas we haven’t had warning about that might come down.”

People should stay off the trail, even after the rain stops, he warned. “Be vigilant about staying off trials until we get some better idea after the rain about where the trouble spots might be.”

Officials are also keeping a watchful eye on homes in North Beach and on the historic Casa Romantica, where there were landslides last year.

On Monday, protective tarping that had been installed on the slope beneath Casa Romantica appeared to be helping and the slope remained in good condition, officials said.

The concern about soil saturation spans along the entire coastal region, including in Newport Beach,  Laguna Beach, Dana Point and beyond. And the worry will continue as the rain falls this week, officials said.

“One of our concerns is the duration of rain,” said Brendon Manning, emergency operations coordinator in Laguna Beach. “They’ve forecasted rain for the next three days. When it comes to saturated hillsides, we’re not relaxing.”

Dana Point City Manager Mike Killebrew said Monday morning some mud and debris had come down from the hillsides in Capistrano Beach close to the border of Dana Point and San Clemente.

K-rails along slopes in that stretch of Coast Highway are “containing the slough as they are intended to,” he said, adding there had been no lane closures.

In Laguna Beach, city officials and crews from the police and fire departments watched the town closely Monday morning, paying special attention to areas known to flood, such as Laguna Canyon Road and where South Coast Highway dips at Aliso Beach.

The Laguna Beach Animal Shelter was “proactively evacuated” late Sunday, Manning said.

The flood channel near the animal shelter has caused flooding problems in past years, but work to improve it has been effective, he said. Still, the animals were taken to the Mission Viejo Animal Shelter and to volunteers’ homes.

In Newport Beach, crews were pumping out water from some low-lying areas on the peninsula Monday, but city officials described things as under control.

Later this week, a king tide near 6.5 feet and large surf in the 6- to 8-foot range are expected and official warn could bring more flooding potential to coastal areas, especial with the additional rain water.

Each year, albatross pairs – mated for life unless a partner dies – typically have just one egg. The eggs incubate for 60 days and crack open in the fourth week of January. From then, the chicks spend six months on the islands of the Midway Atoll, growing and learning to fly.

The massive seabirds — some have wingspans of up to 12 feet — spend their lives on their wings, soaring up to 500 miles a day and cruising at 80 mph with barely a flap, so developing flight skills are critical to survival. They are known to travel incredible distances without rest and are rarely spotted.

So seeing the birds close up and “being part of their tribe” was a once-in-a-lifetime experience for the Orange County marine biologist who usually spends her time researching marine life closer to home off the Southern California coast and educating local students. Caruso, of Garden Grove, was part of a team of 12 citizen scientists who recently spent six days a week for three weeks counting albatross nests on the Midway Atoll.

Just back from the monthlong trip, Caruso has been sharing what she learned with students at local middle schools. The lesson includes fascinating tidbits about the albatross, but also how plastic pollution and entanglements from fishing lines, hooks, and nets are a real threat to the birds. She also tries to inspire students to think about volunteering as citizen scientists – much of her research is done with the help of hundreds of volunteers.

“I was handing them pieces of grass,” Caruso said of her recent experience as one of a dozen volunteers helping United States Fish and Wildlife Department officials with their annual albatross nest count on the U.S. territory island. The atoll is home to at least 70% of the albatross population and is known for its use during World War II and the battle that secured it for the U.S.

“They’d go about their business preening and they’d talk to their egg,” Caruso said. “I’d sit and watch them do their dances. There aren’t many places in the world where you can be among them.”

Counting albatross annually

The wildlife department – along with the Friends of Midway Atoll  – have kept track of the elusive seabirds since 1991. The U.S. Department of the Interior took over monitoring the atoll’s islands from the Department of Defense in 1996 when a Navy base was shuttered and the islands became a marine sanctuary, a national historical monument and a national wildlife refuge.

The count starts in December and must be completed in 21 days by the Nesting Albatross Census Team, which tracks two species of seabirds on the island: the black-footed albatross and the Laysan albatross.

The charter plane Caruso took from Honolulu to the islands landed in the dark of night to avoid the birds. The group was picked up in golf carts and bunked in old military barracks. After breakfast early the next morning they rode bikes along gravel paths to get their gear and start counting.

The gear included snow shoes because another of the island’s birds, the Bonin petrel, burrows deep tunnels into the ground to nest.

“Every step you take, you could fall into a hole up to your waist,” Caruso said. “Then you’d have to get up and dig the bird out.”

To start the count, the volunteers, who came from different backgrounds and from across the nation, formed a line standing five feet apart and systematically moved along, passing nesting adults and counting each nest with a clicker.

“We’d get to the endpoint and then go back the other way,” Caruso said. “We covered the entire islands and I walked 196 miles.”

After 21 days – volunteers got Sundays, Christmas, and New Year’s Day off – the census group had counted 29,562 black-footed albatross and 498,448 Laysan albatross nests for a total of 528,010 nests. About 80% of the eggs typically hatch, but only about 30% of fledglings survive.

An estimated 1.5 million albatross visit the atoll, which once was three islands but two merged as geography shifted, said Dan Cullinane, a retired biology and chemistry teacher from – coincidentally – Midway City, who lead the count this time.

This was Cullinane’s third time participating in the census count.

“It’s nice to be able to walk among the albatross, and you’re counting more than 500,000 nests,” he said, adding that since the birds have no natural predators on land, they are not fearful of humans. Heat and dehydration – if chicks can’t be found when the parents return to feed them – are the biggest enemies of the chicks growing into fledglings.

“It’s hard for the people on the island to see so many birds die,” he said of the 40 or so refuge staff members, contractors, and volunteers who live on the islands year-round.

Doing the albatross dance

Caruso, Cullinane and the others were treated to a show by the albatross – the seabirds’ mating dance.

Young birds do not return to land until their third year after fledging. When they return, they don’t breed at first, but instead learn to perfect their dance moves, build nests and look for a possible mate. Birds first breed between 5 and 8 years of age.

The dance is done to identify their mate of choice; the better the dance, the more coveted they become. The dances are complex with several moves.

Once mated, they finetune the dance and use the moves to identify their partner when returning to Midway to mate again, Cullinane said.  After a chick fledges, the pairs separate for the rest of the year and return to Midway when it’s time to breed, he said.

Birds who lose a mate, either because it doesn’t return to Midway or suffers some other fate, have to go through a new courting process.

Such is the case with Midway’s oldest bird, Wisdom, said Cullinane. Famous among birders, Wisdom was first banded by scientists in 1956. She was seen dancing again, on the prowl for her third mate. But age becomes her well, Cullinane said, because she looks physically no different than younger birds.

Sharing the experience

While Caruso was wowed by the albatross’s fascinating life and how the seabird has evolved over millions of years, a sad discovery was the tremendous amount of trash and debris she and others picked up from around bird nests and beaches. Along with litter washing ashore, the seabirds often pick up plastics from the ocean.

She had bags of litter with her when she recently took her presentation to eighth-graders at Vista View Middle School in Fountain Valley. She said many were “slack-jawed” by what she shared, especially by the albatross dance moves.

“The students really loved the ones where the birds put their beaks into their armpits,” she said.”They were attentive and amused.”

But, even more thrilled was Daryth Morrisey, who teaches science and marine biology to the middle schoolers. Eliminating single-use plastic is a message she said she wants to deliver loud and clear to her students.

“I start off the year with a plastic pollution unit,” she said. “To actually have Nancy see those incredible birds is amazing. To gift me a piece of regurgitated plastic from an albatross is a priceless teaching tool.”

The property, an early example of a California motor court-style hotel, is more than 80 years old and steps from the ocean. “It’s important to us,” he said, “that you know you’re in Dana Point. A black screen can be a portal out of that.”

Instead, the focal point of the rooms in the EL Caminante Bar and Bungalows is a king bed sitting on handcrafted Saltillo tiles with a view of the expansive beach. The TV is there, but framed to disappear into the room’s decor.

Each of the bungalows is decorated to create its own unique experience, helped through varied artwork, vintage light fixtures and one-of-a-kind mosaics created on Mexican white tile in the bathrooms. The idea, Hyde said, is for the ambiance to create a “sense of place.” Overnight stays will be priced between $300 to $1,500.

The property was once the Capistrano Seaside Inn and served as a getaway spot for early Hollywood stars. Over time it’s luster wore off and it was even listed among the nation’s 10 worst motels on Yelp before being shuttered for years and red-tagged by the city.  Following a spin through the courts, the property ultimately went to a foreclosure sale.

Hyde, president of the San Clemente-based Artist Guild Hospitality, purchased the property in 2021 out of the foreclosure. With his partner, Jeff Finn, the two assured city officials that they would renovate with an eye to its historical importance and followed the standards of historical restoration for the exterior. And the community has since been watching closely how the project has unfolded.

Twenty-two of the hotel’s 30 rooms are on the lower level and will have private patios – equal to the size of the room – with cozy seating and a custom-designed outdoor fireplace to give an indoor-outdoor feeling to the space.

As a special surprise, each of the rooms has an old-style record player that plays vinyl, cassette tapes and CDs. Upon request, guests can pick from more than 45 artists to tailor the music to their tastes.

A hacienda – described as a presidential suite – is located above the hotel’s lobby and bar-lounge area and includes a private patio that can accommodate 23 people.

The property’s surrounding landscape kept the original palm trees and has been planted with flowering bushes, edible plants and five Asian fruit trees, from which Hyde said guests will be able to pick fruits like lychee and loganberries.  Handcrafted bricks from an artist in Mexico create a path around the units and through the front courtyard to a three-tiered handcrafted fountain where guests can dip their toes while looking through a clear glass barrier that separates the property from Pacific Coast Highway.

“It’s important you know you are here,” Hyde said during a recent tour of the property. “It’s important you have a sense of place. Everything, including the woodwork, is intentional.”

The minute he and Finn saw the property, Hyde said they knew it would fit their company’s portfolio. They have at least 30 other historic properties they’ve restored along the California coast and one in Hawaii. Their specialty, Hyde said, is taking old buildings and making a new life for them.

“It felt like this was the spot we wanted to create in,” said Hyde, who was living in the same Capistrano Beach community when he purchased the property.  “We went to court, submitted a bid, and got selected for it.”

When they got the property, the buildings had been torn down to the studs.

For Hyde, who describes himself as a hotelier and real estate developer, working on the hotel has been a labor of love, he said. Growing up in Nevada, he framed his first house as a 14-year-old, he said. While he’s built multiple single- and multi-family homes and offices, he said he gets his greatest satisfaction from working on hotels.

“Hospitality is always open,” he said. “When homes are built, I can never go in again.”

As soon as he spent time at the property, Hyde said he realized he had a gem that needed a “gemcutter.” So, he assembled a group of artists to help create the pallet, he said.

First, they had to make sure the floors were level and the walls were square. Each door – the rooms have two Dutch doors  – had to be recut. Everything they constructed had to be rebuilt “twice and three times,” he said.

Now, he said, the property is almost ready to open to the public. April 1 is the date he tossed out, with a possible soft opening earlier for locals.

Hyde is excited about a rooftop bar positioned over the location of a former carport against a steep hillside overlooking the ocean. “I stood on it and decided to turn it into a deck,” Hyde said.

After getting approval from the California Coastal Commission, he’s moving forward with the work to finish it in time for the hotel’s opening. Once completed it will accommodate 49 people.

The deck will be one of three spots where people will be able to grab specialty drinks and a menu featuring Mediterranean-style cuisine and unique pizzas, tapas, and ceviche. The food will be prepared in a 1968 Airstream Ambassador parked near the lobby’s entrance.

Hyde said he’s excited to see what guests will think of the new place, and Didi Shields, the hotel’s general manager, said they’ll be in for quite a treat.

Hyde and Shields said they’ve talked to the city about adding sidewalks in front of the property similar to what’s been done in front of Olamendi’s restaurant just down the road. They’re hopeful this can happen, they said, especially in the wake of city officials looking at a plan to create better connectivity for pedestrians and bikes between Doheny Village and Doheny State Beach.

While the hotel restoration has taken longer than others he’s done, Hyde said the greatest difficulty arose from disagreements with contractors.

“It’s hard to lose people fighting over details,” he said, referring to a September lawsuit filed by Lipps and Sons LLC, which first served as the general contractor. The complaint seeking roughly $1.2 million in damages alleges the contractor was not paid for the hotel renovation and is contesting change orders. According to court records, the case has moved slowly and appears headed to mediation or, if necessary, binding arbitration.

Hyde acknowledged the project has required many changes from what it looked like when he and Finn bought it in the foreclosure sale. Instead of concrete floors and walls, they are now hand-tiled and the walls are drywalled. Every finish that was planned has changed, he said. Hyde declined to say what the project cost.

“It was designed to be rustic; we made it more of a Spanish hacienda,” Hyde said, adding that the hotel has had “noise” around it from the beginning and “there is still noise.”

City Attorney Patrick Munoz said Hyde and Finn have gone through all the required inspections, including to add new features not on the property before, such as the view deck and a fountain. Hyde and Finn had proposed a pool, but the city said no.

“Nobody got cut any special deals and they had to comply with all the uniform codes,” Munoz said, adding the city does inspections as construction progresses and a final inspection will still be required.

Munoz said the hotel fills a niche the city wanted to retain near the beach for visitors. It was also important to the city that the historical significance of a hotel was preserved.

In the end, Hyde hopes the controversies around the hotel fade, he said, and visitors instead focus on the romance and the nod to Spanish history of the new hotel.

“Maybe it feels timeless, and maybe it’s always been here,” he said. “When you do historical renovations, you think about what it would have been like if they had the most resources. What type of art would they have had? What creativity inspired the original bones?”

Work on the $8.5 million project – done through an emergency permit from the California Coastal Commission – started in November and is expected to stabilize the ground beneath the historic home that was damaged in April when the slope collapsed, tearing the property’s view terrace apart and sending debris and rubble down into several units of a condominium and onto railroad tracks along the beach.

The landslide caused train traffic to be halted through the area for weeks,

The work is about a third done, said David Rebensdorf, San Clemente’s assistant city engineer.

The steep slope is being reinforced with four rows of tiebacks that are being bored into the hillside and stabilized with cables connected to concrete beams. Crews have been making good progress, Rebensdorf said, but have stopped now because of the rain from a storm expected to hit the area early Thursday morning.

“We’re covering the area with plastic and drainage from the property will be pumped out onto the street,” he said, adding that this storm, what National Weather Service meteorologists call a Pineapple Express because of its tropical Pacific origins, is expected to be more impactful than previous rain events.

While crews are doing their best to cover the areas presently being stabilized, Rebensdorf said it’s always possible for rain to get beneath the surface, and with construction underway, challenges can arise. Still, he was optimistic that the ground will remain stable.

Since the emergency work began, there has been “very nominal movement, if any,” he said.

The 2.5-acre property was once home to city founder Ole Hansen. The buildings and land are owned by the city, but programs are put on by a nonprofit. The venue is used for public art programs and a place where schoolchildren learn about the beach town’s history, and the property is also a picturesque rental venue for weddings and other private events.

The more than 100-year-old casa sits on a cliff high over the city’s pier and offers panoramic views of the ocean and coastline from its manicured gardens and view terraces.

Since parts of the property were red-tagged on April 27, city officials have done their best to get it stabilized.

An initial geological study and work to shore things up cost the city $75,000, but those temporary repairs and efforts to remold the slope didn’t stabilize the soil enough. In July, with massive community support, the council agreed the property was critical to the city and opted for the permanent slope repair now underway.

On Wednesday, Jacqui Groseth, executive director of administration and resource development, and Kylie Travis, executive director of programs and operations, praised the city and the geotechnical crews for their work in stabilizing the slope.

“We’re not worried,” Groseth said of the impeding inclement weather, adding that the plan the city has in place has been used before when there were rain events. “They’re covering the slope with plastic tarp, so there is no saturation. They’ve got basins and pump systems.”

Travis added: “If it’s really windy, they’ll have people on site. They are doing everything possible to not have it cause any further damage.”

Since work on the slope beneath the casa began, programming has been limited to the property’s courtyard and west terrace. Through the summer, the women said, it was easy to navigate, but as the weather turned colder and wetter, they’ve had get creative.

Some concerts have been rescheduled to later dates, but their art shows – such as the current plein air paintings from the James Irvine Swinden Family Collection on display – are continuing as scheduled.

There are also new events planned, including a children’s concert series set to begin in April and, on the first Sunday of every month, the casa staff is hosting a family day when admission is free. Private events have also resumed, they said, and so far the property has 27 weddings booked between now and June, with one planned for this weekend.

After April’s slide shut down the facility’s ocean-view terrace, they had to issue $300,000 in refunds. Groseth estimates that the casa’s programming budget lost at least $500,000 since the slide. That number also includes additional unexpected expenses for rentals and other accommodations necessary for some of the events they have hosted.

The community has been extremely supportive in helping raise back the lost revenues, they said. Since the slide, casa has recouped $275,000 of their $500,000 goal.

“The community loves Casa Romantica and wants to ensure that everything here continues,” Groseth said.

Once the hillside is stabilized, which could take another six to eight months, city officials will work with the Coastal Commission to see what can be done to restore the former ocean-view terrace, they said.

“Half of it is still there,” Groseth said. “Something will have to be done, it can’t be left in the state that it’s in.”

Rebensdorf said the question remains if it can be restored or how much of it can be.

In the meantime, after the tiebacks are complete, dirt removed from the slope will be put back to cover the wire and concrete beams, he said. The slope will also be replaced with native plants.

Below the casa, city crews are also working with the Reefgate Condominium homeowners association to deal with damages there. That includes replacing a retaining wall and dealing with drainage issues, Rebensdorf said.

Tarps were also placed on the hillside near the condos to protect against the expected rains, said City Manager Andy Hall.

The boat was discovered by city lifeguards around 8:10 p.m. Thursday, said Laguna Beach Lifeguard Capt. Kai Bond.

From 2018, see: Injured sailor pulled from water after boat crashes into Dana Point Harbor jetty

“Lifeguard, police and fire responded and searched the vessel, but found no one on board,” he said, adding the U.S. Coast Guard, Harbor Patrol and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife were also called.

The beach had been closed to the public following the discovery while city crews cleaned up the site Friday. The beach reopened by the end of the day.

“Because the boat was on the rocks and there was surf, it became a removal and cleanup,” Bond said Friday morning.

From 2017, see: Boat crashes onto Newport Beach shore, no injuries reported

With the Coast Guards help, officials have been in contact with the ship’s owner, Bond said, adding it is based out of Belmont Shore in Long Beach and may have lost an anchor and floated away from where it had last been moored.

Officials determined the boat was not involved in “maritime smuggling,” Bond said.

The promenade conceived of more than three years ago as a lifeline for restaurants and shops during the pandemic, has been a temporary setup, with the council deciding in 2021 to make the location on Forest Avenue permanent.

Since its conception, the focus has shifted from helping retailers and restaurants with an outdoor space to survive the pandemic to making the lower stretch of Forest Avenue – starting at Main Beach – a community gathering spot and a place for music, street art, and performances. The idea for the plaza is to enhance Laguna Beach’s downtown while maintaining its character and turning the promenade into a destination for locals and visitors.

In 2022, the city held a survey after hiring a design firm to get public input on what the permanent setup should look like.  Two more workshops were held, with the most recent in May. In July, the city’s Planning Commission considered two design options. The City Council reviewed those on Tuesday but unanimously agreed neither option was ideal and decided more input was needed.

Mayor Sue Kempf and Councilmember Mark Orgill were tapped to work with city staffers to develop options to better fit the council’s and community’s desires for the promenade. After 90 days, the two will report back with a new plan that includes opening the project to a design competition and hopefully drawing more options. The city has budgeted $2.7 million for the project so far. Construction on the new plaza design could start after the summer of 2025 once the Planning Commission and council review it and it meets other entitlements and requirements.

The temporary promenade, prompted by Kempf as a solution during the pandemic, was put together in a month and needs to be rethought and refreshed, officials said, including adding some new amenities.

“We want the whole street designated for (liquor sales) where restaurants can serve alcohol without having to rope areas off,” said Kempf. “We want it to be elegant and simple.”

Councilmember Bob Whalen agreed, saying, “Let ’em do what they do best after we’ve given them physical constraints and what we want to see in terms of tree preservation. It’s our downtown; we ought to have some choices to choose from.”

Planning commissioners had unanimously favored a Forest Stroll concept, which featured random tree placement and pockets of informal space, but maximized outdoor dining. The other design presented, dubbed the Promenade Walk, showed more space for outdoor events and included an open center, maximizing views onto Main Beach. While favoring Forest Stroll, the commissioners agreed in July that there was room for improvement.

About 20 people, including local merchants with businesses on the street, addressed the council during public comments about the two designs.

Most of the public speakers weren’t thrilled with either concept. Concerns ranged from tearing out mature 50-foot eucalyptus trees and adding new ones that might never reach that height, to details in the designs they said didn’t fit the beach town’s character. Some retail shop owners complained the promenade has been more beneficial to restaurants and left their customers with no parking access at their storefronts.

The promenade was created by closing the first block of Forest Avenue between Coast Highway and Glenneyre Street to cars.

“The idea we would have cars driving through there and it would bring more charm for me is unimaginable,” Councilmember Alex Rounaghi said, adding that the promenade is the most visionary thing the community has done. “The idea of a hybrid (pedestrian and vehicles) is not what I’m supportive of.”

A survey done in 2021 indicated the plaza is a hit, with 96% of the public supporting the concept and 87% saying they liked its look.

Councilmember George Weiss wondered why new data on its success hasn’t been gathered.

“We need more input,” he said. “First it was for COVID, now it’s for residents. What’s the number of people coming in, and who are they? We don’t know. Is it 80% tourists and 20% residents? Why haven’t we collected that data? What’s the sales tax from the promenade.”

New data reflecting attendance at the promenade will be part of the subcommittee’s 90-day review, said Tom Perez, assistant director of Public Works, who has been heading up the project.

In the meantime, Rounaghi suggested the city continue pop-ups and other events on the temporary plaza to help gauge some of the overall project’s scope.

“I like the idea of a design competition,” he said. “That allows us to be creative.”

“The promenade is something exciting,” he added. “How do we not make it cookie-cutter? We don’t want it to be like something found in a mall in one of the surrounding cities. We want it to be what Laguna is about – our artistic identity.”