"After seeing the fence and the jackhammer for so long, I'm happy to see people down here." Marisa Fader said that to the Orange County Register the day before the ribbon-cutting. She runs Bushard's Pharmacy, which her grandfather opened on Forest Avenue in 1946.
The permanent Promenade on Forest officially opened on September 25, 2026. By then the city's summer music series on the plaza had already ended on August 30. So the new plaza opened straight into the off-season, with no recurring event schedule we could find for October or November. That's the real test of the project. In July and August, almost any open space downtown fills up. The question for October is whether this one works on a Tuesday afternoon with nothing scheduled. The early signs say it does, and the reason goes back about 25 years.
A street rebuilt as a room
The temporary promenade that went up in June 2020 cost about $250,000. It was a pandemic fix: barriers, parklets, and cars sent somewhere else. The permanent version is a full rebuild. On lower Forest Avenue, between Glenneyre Street and Coast Highway, the city took out the roadway, curbs, sidewalks and parking spaces. In their place went tumbled brick paving, seating areas, art and a fountain inspired by a kelp forest.
The two papers report slightly different costs. The Register puts it at $7.2 million, which City Manager Dave Kiff said came in under budget. The Daily Pilot estimates the full conversion at $7.3 million, including a $5.5 million construction contract the City Council awarded to Superb Engineering in January. Either way, the permanent plaza cost close to 30 times what the temporary one did.
Some of the changes are underfoot and easy to miss. Kiff said the decomposed granite used in construction should help with drainage and flooding. The new landscaping was picked to handle salt air after the unstable and sick eucalyptus trees came out this summer. Not everyone agreed with those choices. After a tree fell into the work zone, the city removed more trees, citing public safety and insurability, and that drew protests. Appellants also took the project to the Coastal Commission over parking, flooding and the town's character. The Commission found no substantial issue.
The art is a mix of old and new. Carolyn Reynolds' Chambered Nautilus Bench, a 2001 piece, was one of the final additions in the week before the opening. Tile artist Marlo Bartels was photographed beside one of his works at the opening. The city had said permanent pieces by Bartels, Larry Gill and Reynolds were taken down during construction, and the Arts Commission was scheduled to discuss where they would go back on August 10. The fountain is a separate case. The Arts Commission did not recommend it as a public art piece, so SWA, the project's designer, developed its custom plinth and top. Finishing work kept going after the ribbon-cutting. The city's project page, updated in early October, still said the remaining elements would be built "over the next couple of weeks."
No schedule, and the plaza is filling anyway
The city's summer series had live music Friday through Sunday from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m., paid for by local lodging businesses and the city. It ran through August 30. So the plaza's first fall began without a house band, and the early uses have come from the community rather than a calendar.
Mayor Mark Orgill described what he has seen so far in the Register:
"Reading circles, kids at the high school talked about using it as a meeting space. There are a couple other groups I see meeting there now and it's becoming a place where people see others they might not run into in a year."
That kind of everyday gathering was the goal from the start. Orgill pointed back to Vision Laguna 2030, a plan from around the turn of the millennium in which about 2,000 residents mapped out the town's future. A downtown gathering place was on their list. He also told the Daily Pilot what sets it apart from the town's other venues. At the Laguna Playhouse and the Cultural Arts Center you sit in assigned seating. On the promenade, "you can listen to music and you can socialize at the same time. You could be at one of the restaurants." He called it an outdoor social space "that can also be used for entertainment from time to time." His point is that the plaza is a social space first, and events come second.
The first days of October backed that up. During the Laguna Plein Air Painters Association's Invitational, which runs through October 11, a Tuesday-evening nocturne paint-out spread through downtown. One participating painter counted about 10 artists painting the promenade's tables and storefronts. Nobody planned the plaza as a painting subject. It took a few days of finished brick and table umbrellas for it to become one.
The businesses that were there before the brick
The opening ceremony doubled as an anniversary party for two shops on the block. Bushard's Pharmacy turned 80, and Moulin, the Parisian-style cafe, turned 10. Their party included free French crepes from Moulin, a raffle of Bushard's gift baskets and live music from Band 133.
Bushard's matters to the plaza's character because of how little it has changed. Joe Bushard opened it with his brother Earl, and it still runs from the original building and footprint, never remodeled. Sheila Bushard-Jamison took over in 1986. Her daughter Marisa Fader now handles the business side. Alongside prescriptions, the store sells specialty cosmetics and perfumes, many of them from France and hard to find in the U.S. Fader said that since the Coast Highway end opened in July, she has seen "an uptick in people shopping and eating and enjoying the promenade." Alessa Italian also serves diners at tables on the promenade. All of them stayed open through construction, while fencing left only narrow walkways.
Getting there now that the curbside parking is gone
Making the promenade permanent took out the street parking on lower Forest Avenue, and lost parking was one of the main objections raised by opponents. The city's public parking lot list shows where the closest public parking is:
| City lot | Address | Spaces |
|---|---|---|
| Glenneyre Structure | 501 Glenneyre St. | 208 |
| Peppertree Lot | 322 Forest Ave. | 36 |
| Broadway Lot | 234 Broadway St. | 25 |
| Ocean Avenue West Lot B | 243 Ocean Ave. | 22 |
| Ocean Avenue East Lot A | 225 Ocean Ave. | 17 |
| Mermaid Lot | 348 Glenneyre St. | 14 |
The five surface lots add up to 114 spaces. The Glenneyre Structure alone has 208, so it's the main alternative. The trolley is the other option. The off-season schedule runs from September 8, 2026, through June 25, 2027. The Coastal Route connects North Laguna, downtown, South Laguna and Mission Hospital every 20 to 30 minutes. On weekends, the Canyon Route runs from Lot 16 at Act V, where parking costs $5, into downtown every 30 minutes between 9 a.m. and 7 p.m. Bike racks were among the final additions before the opening.
December 4 is the first full-scale test
The Laguna Beach Independent reported that Orgill said the city chose to open the promenade before Hospitality Night and the other fall and winter events. Hospitality Night 2026 falls on Friday, December 4, and the city and the Chamber of Commerce sponsor it together. It will be the first night the permanent plaza works as the main stage for a citywide crowd. The city's tentative schedule:
- 3:00 p.m.: Downtown street closures begin on parts of Forest Avenue, Ocean Avenue, Beach Street and Glenneyre, plus the Peppertree Lot.
- 4:00 to 11:00 p.m.: Free trolley and neighborhood on-demand service.
- 5:00 to 9:00 p.m.: Business open houses.
- 6:10 p.m.: Santa arrives at the Peppertree Lot to light the tree.
- 6:30 to 6:45 p.m.: Anneliese School performs on the Forest Avenue main stage.
- 7:00 to 9:00 p.m.: Susannah B & the Lowkeys and Earl Thomas play the Forest Avenue main stage.
The free trolley hours on December 4 run two hours past the end of the stage schedule. The 36-space Peppertree Lot in the table above closes to cars that night because the festivities start there.
Between now and then, we found no scheduled events for the plaza. Until December 4, it will be used by whoever shows up, which so far has meant reading circles, high school students and painters.
The Promenade on Forest is the kind of block-by-block change our team at Mint Real Estate follows closely across Laguna Beach. If you'd like to know how downtown projects like this one are shaping your part of town, we're glad to talk it through over coffee at Moulin.
