Episode 7 - An Inside Look at the Land Trust's Artist Work Live Units

In this episode, Mayor Orgill tours the newly acquired artist live/work studios in Laguna Canyon alongside Assistant City Manager Jeremy Frimond. The conversation explores how the City and the Laguna Beach Community Land Trust worked to preserve these unique creative spaces through a unique community acquisition effort. Listeners will hear behind the scenes details about the acquisition process, the long term vision for protecting artist spaces in Laguna Beach, and why preserving working studios remains important to the City’s cultural identity. The episode also features interviews with several local artists who share what the preservation of these properties means to them personally and how it supports the future of Laguna Beach’s creative community. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_05 0:00

Welcome to the Mayor's Podcast. Jeremy and I are going to take a quick walk around the artist properties that were recently purchased by the land trust, and the city obviously got that going and did all the due diligence. Jeremy was a huge part of that, actually, the main part of that. So we're going to talk to a couple artists. The communities had some questions regarding the two properties. We're just going to walk around and have a discussion regarding the properties. So let's get started. These are the property. This is the first property here. We have a couple of uh studios here. You see Jason Hancock. We're going to walk uh around the perimeter of the property and then we'll uh come back and talk to the artist. So, Jeremy, um give us a little bit of background about the due diligence, uh, just a brief overview of what what the city uh what the the extent that the city went through in the due diligence.

SPEAKER_00 0:56

Sure, mayor. Of course, uh it was actually uh it was a very long process. We wanted to make sure that we really understood uh these properties before we made a recommendation to the city council in terms of uh going forward with the the uh transaction or not. We really uh we wanted to look at, gosh, seismic. We can see we've got hills behind us. We want to make sure the geological's working, the uh the property conditions, the compliance uh with code. All of a sudden done was about I'd say 13 months of due diligence. Phase one environmentals, phase two. I don't want to get too technical with it on it here, but yeah, we really looked under the hood and kicked the tires a couple of times to uh to make sure that this was um ultimately the right recommendation to make to the city council.

SPEAKER_05 1:37

We got a uh woodworker over here. You can see obviously, and this is another topic that can kept coming up, is the um the need for industrial space, you know, heavy work. And we'll get more into that in a moment as we walk through. So we're gonna walk around. We see the live unit up here, the second story, restrooms back here, carport over here. They all have roll-up doors, they're pretty simple industrial space units. We are next to LCAD, uh just to the south of us here, across the street from the main campus of LCAD as well.

SPEAKER_00 2:11

You know, one of the things that when we when we met with the property owners of both this, or pardon me, the tenants of this this property, and then the property we're gonna go check out next, is really understanding at the concept of artist work, live, and the preservation. And what was interesting through that process is as we walked through and realized the need to preserve industrial artist space in this community. As you can see, there is fabrication going on, um, a lot of large art that that makes these spaces uh, I think, so special and so um necessary for this city in terms of preserving its artistic identity. Um, without spaces like this, and the space we'll go visit next, we don't have a large art medium uh anymore being created in Laguna Beach. These are some of the last units left in the city for that type of artwork and that artistic outlet.

SPEAKER_05 3:00

Right. Yeah, thank you for that reminder. So back over here, we're on the other side now, we're walking around. There's a front space here. It looks like it used to be used as a uh kind of a showroom space, but currently there's an artist here. Okay, let's let's walk over and talk to Casey and Mike and just kind of get an idea. Is there a good example of of some of the work that takes place here? Casey, you mind if we ask you a couple questions? So why don't you uh kind of give us a a walkthrough and tell us the kind of work that you do here to help the community understand the importance of these types of spaces? Jeremy was just talking about the need for more of these industrial spaces, and there's just a shortage of them, and we're trying to preserve what we do have in town.

SPEAKER_03 3:43

Yeah, yeah. So I do I do sculpture work, you know, mostly all nature, wildlife related stuff in wood, metal, and stone, you know, and and and doing sculpture, especially large-scale sculptural pieces, is uh it's a loud, messy process. And I've tried doing it residentially earlier on in my career and it didn't go over super well, you know, doing blacksmithing and and uh you know, grinding and wood carving and all that stuff. So having a space like this where I can, you know, where you're it's zoned light industrial, where I can make a mess, I can make noise, and do all that kind of stuff allows me to be able to do the sculpture work that I do.

SPEAKER_05 4:19

Yeah, it's great. You do some great work. I I was talking to your uh assistant when I came in here, and it was uh and I've met your other another one of your assistants um uh weeks ago, and I was it's just great to see that you're passing on your knowledge and your skills to to other folks that are eager to learn it.

SPEAKER_03 4:36

You know, you can't, I mean, you see some of these big, especially these big pieces, but I mean all of it, you you can't do it alone. And so I'm really thankful to have a team. I mean, Karina's here today, she just started uh about a week ago, and then the seam's been with me for over four years now, and there's another guy, Jake, that works with me. He's been with me for a couple years now as well. Yeah, and it's really cool. I mean, it helps me uh you know to be able to do this stuff and scale it and get out the get the pieces out there, um, you know, in the in a in a timely manner.

SPEAKER_05 5:04

Yeah, and at the same time pass on your no, it's great.

SPEAKER_03 5:07

Yeah, that's I can't think of a better way to be able to learn how to do this stuff. You have to have repetitions, right? And so, you know, doing this stuff and all the kind of the tedious repetitions that happen along the way, that's how you get good at doing it.

SPEAKER_05 5:20

Right. All right, well, can you just give us a walk over here?

SPEAKER_03 5:24

Yeah, this is a piece right here. This is the sea lion. Uh, this is gonna be going to the marine mammal center, just out here in the canyon. Uh, they're doing a remodel right now, so they're uh we're storing it here for a little bit, but it's uh it's gonna be moving out that way, hopefully pretty soon. Uh that piece there on the wall is kind of a fun little tide pool inspired piece, wood and metal. And then we've got all this other stuff that's going on. We've got a little shark over there, got some uh little swallows here that that I'm working on out of out of bronze that are gonna be part of a larger piece. And then um, you know, we're Karina's kind of getting some of these fins dialed in for a big uh big sculpture that we've got coming that's gonna have a school of fish in it. So, you know, there's there's always something. Yeah. So a lot of a lot of a lot of moving parts doing this stuff.

SPEAKER_05 6:11

Yeah, well, I'm a big fan of your work, and I know a lot of other folks in the community are as well. Remind me of your connection to the community and and approximately how long you've been in the community.

SPEAKER_03 6:21

Yeah, uh so my family's been here for uh I'd be third generation in of of parlettes living in this town, but I I was a lifeguard for a long time. Um, lifeguarded with Jeremy and and a bunch of other guys. I mean, that's it's I think the lifeguarding in the beach is kind of one of the cornerstones of the of the community here. So, you know, if you're down there at the beach for 23 years like I was, I mean, eventually you bump into most everybody. Yeah. And uh it was it was it was a great thing to have done. Yeah, it was.

SPEAKER_05 6:50

That was what was so great about the community coming together and um acquiring these properties, is so many of you guys that occupy the properties have long time connection to the the community, and then to see the community rally together and and uh work on the plan to come up with them was was really was really gay.

SPEAKER_03 7:07

Yeah, I think so too. And I think, you know, I mean these spaces, once they're gone, they're gone. Right. And I think that there's there's only a handful of spaces out here that are where artists like me can do the kind of work that we do, and I think that there's there's obviously benefit to me for us holding on to this, and there's benefit to the community in having artists that are telling Laguna's story. I agree, I agree.

SPEAKER_05 7:30

And can I ask you real quick of course how do you feel about being having this opportunity to learn from Casey?

SPEAKER_01 7:36

I've been bugging Casey for a spot here for about three years now, and I just started welding school. Um, to me, I knew I didn't want to be doing structural welding or pipe welding, anything like that. And I was told repeatedly that there was no way I could tie together art and welding, but Casey is my example of it being completely possible. Right. And him being willing to teach people my age and to continue the share to share the knowledge is what's gonna keep artistic welding and sculpture going.

SPEAKER_05 8:10

Great. Well said, well said. Well, thank you very much. Thank you, and good luck.

SPEAKER_01 8:13

Appreciate it.

SPEAKER_05 8:14

Okay, we'll walk over here and talk to Mike. Thanks a lot, Casey. I really appreciate it. Yeah, it's good to see you. Hey Mike, how are you? Got a camera guy here. I've just uh we're doing a quick walk around uh tour of the property, putting together a podcast just to help the community understand uh you know what these spaces are all about and how they're being utilized. So if you don't mind, I'm gonna ask you a couple questions. Good with that. How long have you been in this space? 40 plus years. 40 plus years, wow. So it obviously means a lot to you. You got deep roots to Laguna? I do. Have you been in any of the festivals? Many years. Many years? Are you still participating in the festivals? I'm not. Okay. Yeah. So, but you were you have been in the festivals and beautiful work that you have here. Thank you. And I I I was just talking to Casey about the need for these kinds of industrial spaces in town and the importance of preserving as many of them as we can to keep guys like you around. Sure. Sure.

SPEAKER_04 9:11

You know, I was driving into town today and you know it was raining. Old laguna feel to it. And I've been coming into town, living in town for 30, 40, 50 years now. Um so this is uh the artists that were here, a lot of them are gone.

SPEAKER_05 9:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 9:36

And uh it's the oldest school, and what makes Laguna different is the artists.

SPEAKER_05 9:42

I agree. I agree.

SPEAKER_04 9:44

They were attracted to this area for a reason. And the homes, you know, they're all developing in different cities big time. And Laguna is slowly going there. So uh it's uh it's comforting to see that there are still artists participating because when we're gone, we're gone. I agree.

SPEAKER_05 10:07

But we just were next door looking at Casey, and he's got some assistance over there, and he's passing down his knowledge. So, you know, hopefully we'll have some uh and I know Marlo has his son following his footsteps. Right. So, you know, there'll be some guys behind you guys as long as we provide space for them, right? Absolutely. Yeah. Well, I really appreciate it. I appreciate your time, I appreciate your work, and um I look forward to seeing more of your work produced here. Thanks a lot, Mike. I think. Oh, it's okay. It's okay. Thanks a lot, buddy. You know, let's let's take a quick walk over here. There's a I see the guy in here is doing some woodwork. This would be a good example to explain to folks that we have a mixture of both artists and craftspeople here on on both properties, actually. And I think it's also a good time to to talk about, you know, the land trust and when this property was acquired. There was um, it was understood that the properties would be um need to be go go through a repositioning phase. And also the land trust had a series of um some work to do, kind of creating an an understanding what its future tenant mix was going to be, what the future uh rates were going to be, affordability, what percentage were going to be affordable spaces versus market rate. And and then I know the land trust is working through a lot of those issues right now, and they've had a couple of meetings with the artists, and um, you know, it's gonna take some time. You know, we knew that. Um if there is any transition, you know, we want to be sensitive to that and make sure that um if there is um any folks that need to um move on and find additional space somewhere else, that there's some time allowed for that. And you know, some of these spaces, um, there's a couple of them that the artists are using for storage, and we're thinking, well, maybe there's a better solution for that, so we can accomp use that space to accommodate more artists. So I just wanted to address that. That there are changes, it's not, you know, everything isn't going to uh main be static here. So anyway, let's take a quick look at the uh the wood shop here. Now I haven't said anything to this gentleman, but maybe we can just peek in and he'll be nice enough to to allow us to peek in here. Hey, how are you? I'm Mark. What was your name? Jan. Jan. Great, thank you, Jan. I just showing the community um, you know, what is happening in these spaces, and we're just putting this little podcast together to help them understand how valuable these spaces are to the community. People like yourself, um, you know, have a place to create and and do your work. Yeah, this used to actually be my business. Uh there you go. Yeah. I had a small uh shop furniture shop up in Anaheim. Yeah. So anyway, well, it is a pleasure. Thank you for your time. Jason, uh, thanks for allowing us in. So we've toured the property. We talked to Mike, we talked to uh the the gentleman doing the woodwork down the way, and uh Casey Parlett. And you share this studio, and this is actually an interesting example because you you're obviously a painter here, and then you have Brittany over here doing sculpture, and so she uh she uh you know needs uh industrial type space to do this kind of work. But it was great that you guys could could work together and and combine and and utilize the space jointly is great. You want to uh just kind of give us you you know the background, you know that we really it took us a while to for the city to come together, put the land trust together for this acquisition, and uh just tell us what it means to you uh to see all this happen and come to fruition.

SPEAKER_06 13:39

So, well, me personally, it's obviously it's fantastic, right? I get to stay here in my studio, we're gonna make it something that the artist can afford and uh continue to afford. And um I get to be here. So it's great personally, but from a bigger picture standpoint and and where my head is with the community and the identity of Libeta Beach and maintaining an art culture and community to see that the city and that these the volunteers on this board find value in that as well, and that there's this collective consciousness that is that is um obviously awake and and aware that something needed to be done to ensure that. That to me gives me hope and and heart for uh the present and for the future. So that I think we're in a make or break moment, and so moving in this positive direction is a lot of wheels to get moving, and frankly, I thought it went really fast.

SPEAKER_05 14:40

Yeah, well, thanks, thanks for that. Well, I was in the trenches, so it seemed like it was dragging on to me, but and you know, I understand the city has to go through a different, very comprehensive due diligence process, being that um certainly you know we represent the the citizenry. And uh well, it's a pleasure getting to know you as well as we've gone through this process, by the way. And um, why don't you tell me briefly about your association with the SADUS Festival?

SPEAKER_06 15:04

Sure. Um, I've been an artist there. It's I'm coming up on this, this will be my tenth year, and um I'm been on the board for the last three years. I'm the treasurer of the board and uh heavily involved with everything that that goes on SADUS-wise, and and uh it's an honor and a pleasure and uh a lot of work. Yeah, and but it's a very uh one-of-kind, unique place in all the world.

SPEAKER_05 15:28

The reason I wanted to bring up the the SADUS Festival is uh, and I believe this is still the case, you actually need to be a resident of Laguna to participate in the SADUS Festival. Yes. So that even demonstrates you know the need for these spaces to make sure that we have folks that can live and work in town. And again, understand that a lot of these spaces are work spaces. There might be opportunity in the future to um increase the number of spaces through maybe a second story for some second story loft space. That's really going to be up to the land trust in the future. Um, but there's there's a ton of uh potential um with the various properties as far as uh you know how you guys ultimately want to work with the land trust to utilize them. But I appreciate it. I appreciate your time.

SPEAKER_06 16:12

Oh, absolutely. I appreciate you and what you guys are doing so much, and all to all the artists and all the artists in the future as well.

SPEAKER_05 16:19

Great. Thanks. Thanks for your time.

SPEAKER_06 16:21

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_05 16:26

Okay, so we're at the other property now. What's the address here? Do you do you remember 2535 Laguna Canyon Road? And we're gonna take a quick walkthrough. But I noticed Caitlin was here, and so I wanted to uh pop in uh unannounced and put her on the spot and ask her a couple questions. So, really, just you know, tell us. So you're obviously a painter. I'm a painter. And what we were talking about earlier is the um uniqueness of these spaces that it could be you a lot of them could be used for industrial type space, you know, heavy space here.

SPEAKER_02 16:57

Just got that kiln.

SPEAKER_05 16:58

Oh, you got a kiln.

SPEAKER_02 16:59

So you okay, so you do different types of a little bit of glass, we'll see.

SPEAKER_05 17:03

Oh, really? Glasswork. Oh, that's awesome. So, anyway, what's this mean to you? Why don't you just tell us briefly?

SPEAKER_02 17:08

Oh, it means I can be in business. It means I can make noise and I can also be quiet and I can have my clients come here. Um, it's a professional environment, and I am able to continue working without it. I'm out of town. I'm moving. I'm leaving, actually, I'll leave the state. If I'm not in Laguna, I'm not in California.

SPEAKER_05 17:28

Yeah, yeah. And that's why this was so important. And that's why I wanted to share some of these stories with the community, just so they understand how valuable this is. And I was just talking to Jason um at the other property and reminded folks that in order to participate in the SADS Festival, you have to be a resident. But if there's no folks living in town, there's no SADS festival. So anyway, well, I appreciate your time and um good luck with everything, and I'll see you around. Hey Justin, how are you? Uh we're just walking around the properties today. Um, doing this quick podcast to show the community, uh help them understand the properties, what they're being used for, and uh there was some curiosity out there, so I thought I'd do this. Uh luckily you're here today. You can give us your brief uh what it means to you.

SPEAKER_07 18:14

Um well it's it it's been a godsend, and it's uh it was um a great gift to um the core soul of Laguna. Um it was based on um these artists taking refuge in a in a place that uh welcomed them, and um much like I was displaced from another area because of um the same kind of acquisition idea, you guys uh gave me a place to um create and paint and uh make a career out of this.

SPEAKER_05 18:52

Great, great. Well, thanks for sharing that with us, and I'm uh I'm glad that uh you were able to take advantage of this. So and so the space that you were in before, I understand it was in Santa Ana, and the same thing that's happening uh here is happening there. A lot of these properties are up for redevelopment, new acquisitions, and that's why these spaces are um actually um being threatened right now, and we're we're losing them. So that's how why this is so important.

SPEAKER_07 19:17

Yeah, thanks to you.

SPEAKER_05 19:18

Yeah, well, it was the whole city, and that's what I want. I want um the the community to understand, you know, that you know how important this was, and it's thanks to the community and uh the the city did loan the land trust the the funds to do this. We're going to pay the land trust back, we meaning the the uh organization, the land trust organization, which I plan on being a part of uh, you know, for the foreseeable future. So anyway, I appreciate it and thank you very much.