Downtown Laguna Added Two Free Places to Linger in September. The Fall Calendar Doesn't Come Back to Them Until December 4.

"You go to the Playhouse, you're in seating," Mayor Mark Orgill told the Daily Pilot the day after the Promenade on Forest was dedicated. "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 ribbon-cutting was Friday, September 25. The Surfing Heritage and Culture Center had opened its doors downtown six days earlier. That gave the city two new places in one week where you can spend an hour without a ticket or a reservation. The fall calendar mostly happens elsewhere, though. The weekend music on Forest ended in August. The surf museum closes to the general public for nine days in late October. Most of the season's big events run in Laguna Canyon, at Heisler Park and at Laguna Art Museum. Until Hospitality Night on December 4, both new places will mostly get used on ordinary weekdays and weekends with nothing scheduled.

What Lower Forest Turned Into

The block in question is Lower Forest Avenue between Coast Highway and Glenneyre Street, and it's now closed to cars for good. It began in 2020 as a pandemic pilot to help downtown businesses. The permanent version took most of 2026 to build. The City Council gave Superb Engineering a $5.5 million construction contract in January, and work started February 17. The promenade was supposed to be done in June. It partly opened in time for the July 4 weekend and was finished in September. The two papers that covered the opening put the total cost at slightly different figures. The Orange County Register reported $7.2 million and said the city manager called it under budget. The Daily Pilot estimated $7.3 million.

Here's what was built:

• Underfoot: brick and permeable paving with trench drainage, plus wider walkways in front of the shops
• Seating: custom tables and chairs, sun umbrellas with heaters, and a nautilus-shaped bench
• Centerpiece: a fountain and artwork inspired by a kelp forest, with tile work by local artist Marlo Bartels on site
• Utilities: piped-in audio, lighting, Wi-Fi and bike racks
• Planting: landscaped beds and new trees, plus spots set aside for temporary performances

Some of the businesses along the block have been there for decades. At the dedication, Bushard's Pharmacy celebrated its 80th anniversary and Moulin cafe its 10th, and Moulin's staff handed out baked goods. Diners at Alessa ate under the new umbrellas while the 133 Band played. One merchant, Marisa Fader, told the Register that foot traffic, shopping and dining picked up once the construction fence came down.

Not everyone wanted it. Turning the street into a plaza meant removing the roadway, curbs, sidewalks and parking spaces. The project was appealed to the Coastal Commission. The appellants argued that the city couldn't make up for the lost downtown parking, and they also raised flooding risk and whether the project fit the town's character. The Coastal Commission found no substantial issue. Some residents protested again in April, after the city removed more trees when one fell into the work area during construction.

The city's free promenade concerts ran 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, and they ended August 30. Street performers still need a city permit. So the stage and sound system are now in place, but with the summer series over, the new plaza is mostly a place to sit with a coffee from Moulin, at least for this fall.

Down the Street, a Free Surf Museum in an Old Variety Store

The Surfing Heritage and Culture Center moved up from San Clemente and opened to the public on Saturday, September 19. It closed that Sunday for its fundraising gala. The new home is about 12,000 square feet in a building that was once a Sprouse-Reitz store and later a drugstore. The Register puts its construction in the 1940s, and the Laguna Beach Independent says 1939.

SHACC is free and open Tuesday through Sunday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. It's closed Mondays. News coverage gave the address as 239 Broadway St. The museum's own directions send you to 232 Ocean Ave for the parking lot and main entrance. That's the address to put in your map app. There are bike racks by the front entrance, and OCTA Route 1 stops at Broadway and PCH.

The museum calls its archive the world's largest publicly accessible collection of surf culture. It holds about 80,000 objects, including 2,400 boards, 12,000 magazines and more than 60,000 photographs. The current featured exhibit is "PAE KA NALU: Catch the Wave." The permanent galleries are split into four sections: "Out of the Blue," "From Hawai'i with Aloha," "BOOM" and "Revolutions." According to the Independent, the displays include five boards connected to Duke Kahanamoku and a public library and archive upstairs. Other exhibits cover surf shops, fashion, movies, music, competition and oceanography.

Before you plan a free afternoon there, check the dates. From October 17 through 25, SHACC is open only to Coast Film Festival ticket holders. Here's what the museum's events page lists for the rest of the month:

If you just want to walk in and look at boards, go before the 17th or after the 25th.

The Same Month Took Away a Table Above the Sand

Downtown also lost something in September. The Deck on Laguna Beach and Driftwood Kitchen closed for good on Monday, September 7, after more than a decade. Management said the closures weren't for financial reasons. Both restaurants closed to make way for a redevelopment of the Pacific Edge Hotel property. The Deck had been an open-air lounge right above the sand, and Driftwood Kitchen was the more formal ocean-to-table dining room upstairs. Between them they served nearly a million oysters, including 10 years of Sip & Shuck fundraisers for local nonprofits.

The redevelopment covers the nine buildings at 610 to 668 Sleepy Hollow Lane. Together they provide 131 hotel rooms, and the owner is Dune Drifter LLC, which bought the property in 2024. The city's project description includes a new café with outdoor dining. No opening date has been announced.

Put that next to the promenade and downtown's outdoor seating shifted in the same month. A Sleepy Hollow Lane deck that charged for oysters and sunset cocktails closed, and a public plaza with free seating opened. Alessa and Moulin still sell food along the promenade. The heaters, chairs and fountain are free to use.

Where the Fall Calendar Actually Happens

Here's the programmed fall calendar from now through the holidays, in order, with where each event takes place. Only one of them is on Forest Avenue.

1. October 3 to 11, around town. LPAPA's 28th Annual Laguna Beach Plein Air Painting Invitational has 30 invited artists painting around Laguna, and the Collectors Art Party is October 10. Some older listings call this the 27th annual. That's last year's event.
2. October 17 to 25, SHACC. The museum is open only to Coast Film Festival ticket holders. Concerts in the Canyon, a separate Coast Film & Music Foundation series, has been pushed to 2027, Stu News Laguna reported.
3. November 1 to 9, Laguna Art Museum and Heisler Park. This is the museum's 14th annual Art + Nature Celebration Week. Kim Manfredi's "A Flag Walk for Our Future," an accessible 0.7-mile walk along Heisler Park, runs November 5 to 9. The museum's exhibit "View with a Grain of Sand" is up through January 18, 2027.
4. November 20 to December 20, Laguna Canyon Road. Sawdust Winter Fantasy is open Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays at the festival grounds.
5. Friday, December 4, downtown. Hospitality Night puts its main stage on Forest Avenue.

From the second week of October through Thanksgiving weekend, the events are at the museum, along the bluff or out in the canyon. The promenade isn't scheduled to host anything. If you live here, that's a good stretch to get used to the plaza while it's quiet.

December 4 Is the Promenade's First Big Night Since It Became Permanent

The city's tentative Hospitality Night schedule runs roughly 5 to 9 p.m. on Friday, December 4. Downtown street closures start at 3 p.m., and free trolleys run from 4 to 11 p.m. Businesses hold open houses from 5 to 9, and the tree lighting is at 6:10. Performers on the Forest Avenue main stage include Anneliese School and Susannah B & the Lowkeys with Earl Thomas.

It will be the first time a full downtown crowd uses what was built this year: the heaters, the brick, the fountain, the sound system and the open space where parked cars used to be. The city also runs its free off-season Coastal Route trolley through downtown on Coast Highway. That trolley, the 4 p.m. start of the free Hospitality Night trolleys, and a walk down from the 232 Ocean Ave lot are ways to get to Forest that night without circling for a parking space.

If you've been wondering what the new promenade and SHACC's move to downtown might mean for the homes around them, Nick Cardenas would be glad to talk it through. Nick follows these Laguna Beach changes closely and offers a free home consultation for neighbors who want a clear, no-pressure read on how downtown's changes relate to their own plans.