Battered by years of legal hurdles, the pioneering live-work artist community in Laguna Canyon has posted its projected rents, and the prices are startling to some.
Studios start at $3,800 – $1,900 if you count beds – and upwards of $9,500 for a two-bedroom.
The project was originally billed as an affordable option for local artists, and owner Louis Longi insists that he has delivered.
“Everyone wants to focus on the market rates when 30% of my project is affordable housing,” he said. “What are they complaining about?”
The online gossip mill is using the posted rates as proof that it was a bait-and-switch project from the start, rehashing old concerns about its size, location and myriad other issues.
Part of the reality, Longi said, is that there were so many complaints – a half dozen lawsuits, shifting city rules, excessive red tape.
“My project should have been built seven years ago when I had all my approvals,” he said. “I’ve got over $900,000 worth of legal fees defending my right to build.”
Longi said the rental prices would be lower if it weren’t for the unfair intervention.
“I can safely say we have $3 million in carrying costs that would not have been there had I had been able to build when we first got our permits. That’s pretty significant.”
Even with the extra costs, Longi said he’s still living up to his end of the bargain.
“You can’t touch a place in Laguna Beach for $1,900 a month that includes living space, studio space and exterior space. In order to do that, the other units have to bear that burden,” he said. “I hear people say things like, ‘It’s not what they said it was.’ By law, it’s exactly what we said it was going to be.”
Called ArtLofts, the 28-unit complex is expected to open in August at 20412 Laguna Canyon Rd.
To get accepted, you must be a working artist or current student (ideally LCAD) and approved by the city’s Arts Commission. Details are on the site.
The real public pushback seems to be the lingering heartburn of its history. People are still annoyed that the project got approved in the first place.
Longi started looking at the site in 2007. You might remember it by the cow rugs. It was a dusty field on Laguna Canyon Road that turned into a dubious swap meet on the weekends.
In the beginning, Longi imagined rents starting at $800. As a working artist in Laguna, he said he just wanted to give back to the community and create something cool. He was genuinely excited about the project.
Now, years later, embittered and in debt, reeling from COVID impacts and escalating costs, he still believes in his vision but feels disenfranchised from the community.
“These people want to talk about community, and they did everything in their power to fight me – a community member,” he said. “Why is everyone so quick to judge without any analysis of what’s really going on?”
Longi played by the rules and then some. Besides, he said, what he’s building is a lot better than what’s out there.
It’s no secret that the canyon can be a potpourri of bad choices. For years, it’s been the Wild West of non-existent oversight. Right next to Longi’s land is every sort of business you can imagine: commercial koi ponds, a barking-dog ranch, a small apartment, a Hindu temple and an animal hospital.
But wait, there’s more.
Is Longi’s project big? Maybe. But just a couple hundred yards down the road, there’s Laguna Self Storage, a massive, nearly 50,000-square-foot block of concrete.
While all of these businesses are fine, useful establishments, the canyon is no longer the quaint, “rural” part of Laguna Beach with apple harvest tours and pony rides, as some would lead you to believe.
The fact is the project has had to endure unrelenting not-in-my-backyard protectionism that is now common for Laguna.
At a recent City Council meeting where Longi’s project was brought up yet again, Councilmember Peter Blake defended Longi and cited the lengthy legal and political issues.
“For starters, those prices on those spaces are not for the actual space where people are living but those are also shared spaces where people will be working,” Blake said. “Maybe those would have been affordable had it not been for … all of the political and legal litigation that took place over years to block them. So when you get done with hundreds of thousands of dollars of legal bills and carrying a mortgage for that long what do you think the rents are going to be at that point?”
For Longi, he just wants to move forward. He’s offering nine units that qualify for affordable housing. Instead of thanks, he’s still fighting. He said he’s been fighting for so long and hard that it has taken a toll.
“It’s been tough. They wanted to bury me financially. It almost worked. I thought about retiring at 70, but there’s no way that’s going to happen.”
