Laguna Beach Municipal Code Ch. 5.28 Oil Drilling

The city council does find, determine and declare as follows:

(a) That Laguna Beach is a beach resort city, well-known and famed the world over for its beautiful and picturesque shoreline, unmarred and unobstructed by jetties, groins and other disfiguring structures; and

(b) That Laguna Beach is primarily residential in character with small, limited areas devoted to business and light industry. It is noted for its historical background as an artists' colony, and for its past and present contributions in the fields of art, music, the theater, ceramics and related handicraft works; and

(c) That Laguna Beach is not an industrial city and has practically no areas within its territorial limits suited for industrial development; and

(d) That topographically Laguna Beach is so situated that it lies along a long, narrow strip of land bounded on the southwesterly side by the ocean and on the northeasterly side by a background of hills; that substantially the entire city is visible at all points as its rises to the hills; and

(e) That the prevailing surface drainage from all points within the city is toward and into the ocean and upon the beach which runs along the entire southwesterly side of the city; and that all waste waters, floodwaters, surface waters, and debris, which do not enter the sewer system, drain down toward and unto the ocean and beach and cause the bathing beach to be disfigured and littered with debris, creating danger of polluting the bathing beach waters and damage and destroy the ocean and beach for bathing and resort purposes; and

(f) That oil drilling and oil producing operations require derricks, pumps, oil sumps, boilers and other disfiguring equipment; that said operations frequently produce and result in spillage of oil and the discharge of other waste materials which would be likely to wash unto the bathing beach and into the ocean waters adjoining the city; that said operations are noisome and ill-smelling; that said operations even under strict regulations create ever-present dangers of fire and explosion against which protection would be extremely difficult in a city of the character and development of Laguna Beach; and

(g) That many of the streets in Laguna Beach are narrow and steep; that there is only one through highway running from north to south and the traffic thereon during the summer season and on weekends and holidays is extremely heavy; that the street and highway facilities within the city are not adequate to afford protection to life and property from the dangers of gas and oil fires and explosions that would be created by oil drilling and producing operations within the city; and

(h) That by reason of the natural beauty of the beach, the shoreline, and the hills and canyons in and around the city, and the view thereof that is afforded to the many residents and residential sites within the city, such property now enjoys substantial property values which would be lost and destroyed if oil derricks and their appurtenances were permitted within the city.

(1953 Code § 2160; Ord. 373 § 1, 1954)

It is unlawful for any person, firm or corporation, whether as principal, agent, officer or employee, to drill for oil, or in any manner to prospect for the same, or to install or maintain any equipment such as derricks, steam plants, tanks or any other equipment appertaining to the business of drilling for oil or the operation of oil wells within this city.

(Ord. 42 § 1; 1953 Code § 2161)