"You go to the Playhouse, you're in seating," Mayor Mark Orgill told the Daily Pilot the day after the Promenade on Forest's ribbon-cutting. "At the promenade, you can listen to music and you can socialize at the same time. You could be at one of the restaurants."
The city's summer music series on Forest Avenue ran Fridays through Sundays, 5:30 to 7:30 p.m., and ended Aug. 30, 2026. The finished plaza was dedicated almost four weeks later, on Friday, Sept. 25. The city's October and November calendars list nothing on the promenade. The next scheduled sets on its main stage come with Hospitality Night on Dec. 4. So for most of this fall, lower Forest Avenue between Glenneyre Street and Coast Highway works as an everyday place to sit, with no event to draw people in. Whether a $7 million plaza works as that kind of place is the real test, and locals get to see it first.
A $250,000 Pilot That Became a Seven-Million-Dollar Street
The temporary promenade opened in June 2020 for about $250,000, according to the Orange County Register, $10,000 of it for security. It gave downtown businesses somewhere to serve customers while pandemic distancing rules were in place. The permanent version cost many times that. In January the City Council gave a $5.5 million construction contract to Superb Engineering. The Daily Pilot puts the full conversion at about $7.3 million. The Register reported $7.2 million, and City Manager Dave Kiff called that under budget.
The money took out the roadway, curbs, sidewalks and parking spaces and replaced them with brick, art and seating. Not everyone wanted that. The project was appealed to the California Coastal Commission. The appellants pointed to lost downtown parking and argued the plaza didn't fit the town's character, and the commission found no substantial issue. When a tree fell into the work zone during construction, the city removed more trees for safety and insurance reasons, and those removals drew protest.
Orgill tied the finished space to Vision Laguna 2030, the plan about 2,000 residents helped shape around the turn of the millennium. That plan imagined a gathering place much like this one.
What's Built Into the Brick
The parklets and planters from 2020 were set up to get through a crisis. The permanent plaza has fixtures that work with nothing scheduled.
- A kelp-forest-inspired fountain. It sits among the project's centerpieces, along with specialty brick and new furniture.
- Rustic tumbled brick and decomposed granite. Kiff said the granite should help with drainage.
- Light poles and umbrellas. Both appear on the city's construction update, so there is shade by day and light after dark.
- New trees. The city lists two specimen oaks and ten 48-inch-box eucalyptus. Kiff said the new landscaping suits a "saline" environment better than the unstable, ailing eucalyptus taken out this summer.
- Art and a nautilus bench. Kiff said more art pieces, the nautilus bench and bike racks went in during the last week of construction. Local tile artist Marlo Bartels was photographed with one of his pieces at the opening.
- Audio and Wi-Fi. At the Sept. 22 council meeting, Kiff said full electrical service for the fountain, audio system and Wi-Fi should be on that Wednesday.
The audio system stands out. A plaza with built-in sound and Wi-Fi doesn't need a booked act to have music or a reason to stay a while. The city's approved design also includes wider walkways in front of the shops and set-aside temporary performance areas. The space was designed to switch between an ordinary day and an event.
The Storefronts Were There First
On a weekday with nothing scheduled, the businesses along the promenade give people a reason to show up. The oldest is Bushard's Pharmacy. Joe Bushard, a young USC-trained pharmacist, opened it in 1946 with his brother Earl, and it still runs in the building Joe built on Forest Avenue, in its original footprint and never remodeled. His granddaughter Marisa Fader runs the store now. She told the Register that the opening was "a good time to include the community to celebrate not only the ribbon cutting but our two anniversaries."
The second anniversary belonged to Moulin, the Parisian-style cafe marking 10 years. Its staff handed out baked goods and free crepes at the opening. Opening-night diners also filled the umbrella-covered tables at Alessa, the Italian restaurant on the promenade. Faherty opened on Forest Avenue in April, in the middle of construction.
That mix covers a lot of an ordinary day: a pharmacy errand, a coffee, lunch, some shopping. All of them stayed open while crews worked behind fencing that left only narrow walkways. The plaza was built around businesses that already had years on this block.
What's Actually Scheduled Between Now and December
The calendar from here to the holidays is short, and most of it happens near the plaza rather than on it.
Thursday, Nov. 5: First Thursdays Artwalk
The First Thursdays Artwalk listing runs from 5 to 9 p.m. It notes that the organizer controls last-minute changes, so check the details before heading out. With the fountain lit and restaurant tables a block or two from the galleries, the promenade makes a natural stop on an evening walk.
Anytime: Street performers, with a permit
Performing on the promenade takes approval from the city's Cultural Arts staff. Performers have to stay inside a designated performance area and can't go past three hours. The city's noise and street-performer ordinances still apply, and the city can revoke permission at any time. If you hear a guitar there on a November Saturday, it went through that process. Musicians who want to apply can find the form on the city's Calls for Artists page.
Friday, Dec. 4: Hospitality Night
The 133 Band played after the Sept. 25 ribbon-cutting, but Hospitality Night is the first scheduled event on the promenade's main stage since the opening. The city and the Laguna Beach Chamber of Commerce co-sponsor Hospitality Night every year on the first Friday of December. This year it runs roughly 5 to 9 p.m. Here's the tentative schedule:
- 3 p.m.: Downtown street closures begin on parts of Forest Avenue, Ocean Avenue, Beach Street, Glenneyre and the Peppertree Lot.
- 4 to 11 p.m.: Free trolley and neighborhood on-demand service.
- 6:10 p.m.: Santa arrives in the Peppertree Lot, also called Lot 2, to light the tree.
- 6:30 to 6:45 p.m.: Anneliese School performs on the main stage on Forest Avenue.
- 7 to 9 p.m.: Susannah B & the Lowkeys and Earl Thomas play the Forest Avenue main stage.
- 5 to 9 p.m.: Business open houses throughout downtown.
The two Forest Avenue sets will be the first holiday-season performances on the finished brick, beside the fountain and under the new light poles.
Getting Downtown Without the Lost Parking
The parking spaces on lower Forest Avenue are gone for good, so the trolley matters more this season. The non-summer schedule runs Sept. 8, 2026, through June 25, 2027. On weekdays a free route runs along Coast Highway every 30 minutes. On weekends, coastal service comes every 20 to 30 minutes, and the free Canyon Route runs from Lot 16 on Saturdays and Sundays, 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Times can change, so check the current timetable from Visit Laguna Beach before you go.
Our team pays attention to what a project like the Promenade on Forest changes about the blocks around it, from foot traffic past the shops to how close a home sits to a spot people use every day. If you'd like to know how downtown's new plaza figures into your property's value, Teicheira Team can walk you through it. Request a Home Valuation or Auction Consultation whenever you're ready.
