Overview
About Downtown
Downtown Laguna is the village core, sixty-six acres between Cliff Drive and the beach where Forest Avenue, Ocean Avenue, Broadway and Park Avenue meet South Coast Highway. The city draws it as evacuation zone 10. The assessor counts 244 parcels on twenty-nine named streets, and the zoning is commercial before it is residential: 179 of the 250 parcels the city zones here sit in one of the six central business district categories, against 47 in R3 and 11 in R2.
Twenty-one of the sixty-six acres fall inside the mapped coastal zone, and six bus stops sit within the boundary, more per acre than anywhere else in the city. The city's Historic Resources Inventory lists 56 resources downtown, thirty-five of them filed under Downtown Laguna itself. Laguna Beach Unified serves the village from four campuses and 2,291 students, with El Morro and Top of the World elementaries feeding Thurston Middle and then Laguna Beach High.
View available homes in DowntownHistory
How Downtown was built
The hotels made it a town. Henry Goff built two of them, one of which became the western wing of Joseph Yoch’s Laguna Beach Hotel. In 1897 Yoch had the abandoned Arch Beach Hotel cut into three pieces, hauled up the coast and joined to his own, making a thirty room hotel called the Hotel Laguna. Guests included Governor Markham and the actress Madame Modjeska. In 1904 the postmaster Nicholas Isch got the town’s name corrected from Lagona to Laguna Beach, which is how it had been misspelled since the post office opened.
Then came the version of downtown people recognize. Coast Highway opened in 1926 and the city incorporated on 29 June 1927. The Festival of the Arts premiered in 1932 as a response to the Depression, the Pottery Shack opened in 1936 and moved to Coast Highway and Brooks in 1937, and Eiler Larsen arrived in 1938 and was made the town’s official greeter, a post Joe Lucas had informally held forty years earlier. Sixty six acres of ground carry fifty six listed historic resources and six of the city’s sixty two mapped bus stops.
By the Numbers
Downtown by the numbers
Lifestyle
The Downtown lifestyle
Laguna Beach occupies 8.84 square miles with a population of about 23,000 and roughly six million visitors a year on the city's own count, and provides its own police, fire and marine safety protection.
Beaches north of Aliso Creek close between 1:00 a.m. and 5:00 a.m.; beaches south of the creek close between 10:00 p.m. and 6:00 a.m.; Thousand Steps Beach closes between 9:00 p.m. and 6:00 a.m.
The city permits surfing at Agate, Brooks, Rockpile and Thalia Street beaches. Smoking fines on city beaches, parks and trails run $100, then $200, then $500 within twelve months.
Schools
Schools serving Downtown
Laguna Beach Unified serves Downtown along with the rest of the city, from four campuses and 2,291 students on the 2024-25 federal count: El Morro Elementary 404, Top of the World Elementary 536, Thurston Middle 524 and Laguna Beach High 815. Attendance is set by the district and can change, so confirm the current assignment for a specific address with the district before relying on it.
K-5 · 404 students
K-5 · 536 students
6-8 · 524 students
9-12 · 815 students
FAQs
Common questions about Downtown
What is Downtown Laguna and how is it laid out?
It is the village core, sixty-six acres drawn by the city as evacuation zone 10, between Cliff Drive and the beach where Forest Avenue, Ocean Avenue, Broadway and Park Avenue meet South Coast Highway. The assessor counts 244 parcels on twenty-nine named streets. Six bus stops sit inside the boundary and twenty-one acres fall within the mapped coastal zone.
Is downtown residential or commercial?
Both, with commercial predominant. Of the 250 parcels the city zones inside the boundary, 179 sit in one of six central business district categories, 47 in R3 and 11 in R2. That mix is why upper-floor and mixed-use residences are common downtown while detached single-family ground is not.
Which schools serve Downtown Laguna?
Laguna Beach Unified serves the whole city from four campuses and 2,291 students on the 2024-25 federal count: El Morro Elementary 404, Top of the World Elementary 536, Thurston Middle 524 and Laguna Beach High 815. Elementary assignment is set by the district and can change, so confirm the current one for a specific address with the district office.
What is the Downtown Specific Plan?
The City Council adopted it in 1989 after several years of work by a Citizens Advisory Committee, with the stated objective of preserving and enhancing the unique character of the downtown. A comprehensive amendment in 2000 extended the boundary to the Boys and Girls Club on Laguna Canyon Road and created the Civic Art District. It governs use, height and design downtown, so take a specific address to the city's Community Development counter early.
How old are downtown buildings?
Old by Orange County standards. The assessor's roll dates 58 percent of structures inside the boundary to before 1950, and the 1920s account for more of them than any other decade. The city's Historic Resources Inventory lists 56 resources downtown, thirty-five filed under Downtown Laguna itself, so check a specific address against the inventory before planning any exterior work.