The Promenade on Forest Was Built for Winter. This Is Its First One.

The umbrellas over the new tables on Forest Avenue look like ordinary sun shades until the evening cools off. Each one has a heater built into it. When City Manager Dave Kiff walked reporters through the plaza in early July, he described "sun umbrellas with integrated heaters for cooler weather," along with piped-in audio throughout and new lighting, as the Orange County Register reported.

At the time, those details were easy to miss. The plaza had just partly opened for the July 4 weekend, and everyone was talking about summer. Now it is November, and the Promenade on Forest is heading into its first cool-weather season as a permanent space. Over the next two months downtown, the heaters, lighting and audio will get more use than they did all summer.

Six Summers of Parklets, Then a Plaza

The Forest Avenue most locals remember from the last few years was improvised. The city opened a temporary promenade on June 15, 2020, as outdoor dining and merchandise space for the COVID era. Restaurants such as Alessa got city permits for temporary dining parklets, and closing the lower block to cars followed from there.

Making it permanent was a much bigger project:

• April 23, 2024: The City Council decided to move ahead with a permanent pedestrian plaza.
• January 2026: The council awarded a $5.5 million construction contract to Superb Engineering. The full conversion was estimated at $7.3 million.
• February 17, 2026: Construction began. The road, curbs, sidewalks, and parking spaces were removed.
• September 25, 2026: More than 500 people came to the official dedication, according to the Laguna Beach Independent.

The permanent plaza covers the lower part of Forest Avenue, from Glenneyre Street to Coast Highway. Businesses stayed open through the whole build, working behind fencing that left only narrow walkways. That means this fall is the first time the block has been both finished and open since February.

What the Money Bought for Evenings

Take away the brick and the trees, and much of the permanent design is about evenings and cooler weather. The city's project page, the Register's coverage and the Daily Pilot's report on the fountain, audio and Wi-Fi wiring list these features:

The plaza has 20 new trees, mostly eucalyptus varieties plus some live oaks. Six original trees stayed, including the large eucalyptus near Candy Baron and a very tall one at the Glenneyre end. Kiff told the Register the space was meant to be flexible, even suggesting "a community meal where you line up all the tables down the middle, and you just bring your food and sit next to anybody."

Mayor Mark Orgill explained the idea in an interview with the Daily Pilot:

"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 free Music on the Promenade series ran Fridays through Sundays from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. and ended on August 30. Through November and December, the plaza's everyday life comes from the businesses around it. Bushard's Pharmacy marked 80 years and Moulin marked 10 years at the dedication. Alessa had diners at its promenade tables that same night. Faherty, a surf-inspired clothing brand, opened on Forest in April while construction was still going on.

The Season, Date by Date

The holiday calendar keeps sending people downtown, and three of its biggest dates fall within walking distance of the heated tables.

Today is the first of those dates. At Laguna Art Museum, the free hour tonight covers only the Kim Manfredi exhibition. After the 6 p.m. artist talk, only registered attendees can stay in the museum, and it expects to close around 7 p.m. The First Thursdays Art Walk keeps its usual 6 to 9 p.m. hours. That leaves time for dinner on Forest once the museum closes.

Sawdust Winter Fantasy opens Friday, Nov. 20, and runs Friday through Sunday for five weekends. Its 7 p.m. closing time also lines up with an evening downtown.

Hospitality Night Ends on the Promenade

Hospitality Night is the city and Chamber of Commerce's block party, held the first Friday of December. This year that's Friday, Dec. 4. The city calls the schedule tentative. As posted, the evening starts in the Peppertree Lot, also known as Lot 2, and ends on the new plaza:

1. 3 p.m. Downtown street closures begin on parts of Forest Avenue, Ocean Avenue, Beach Street, Glenneyre, and the Peppertree Lot.
2. 4 to 11 p.m. Free trolley and neighborhood on-demand rides.
3. 5 p.m. Thurston Middle School Band plays in the Peppertree Lot, with holiday crafts until 7:30. Business open houses run until 9.
4. 5 to 7 p.m. Laguna Beach Presbyterian holds an art market with La Playa Tamales, cookies and cider, and caroling.
5. 5:30 p.m. Ukulele Academy performs.
6. 6:10 p.m. Santa arrives at the Peppertree Lot and lights the tree.
7. 6:15 to 7:30 p.m. Laguna Community Concert and JaZz Band performs.
8. 6:30 p.m. Anneliese School performs on the Main Stage on Forest Ave., and Santa begins hearing wishes at his Beach House until 9.
9. 7 to 9 p.m. Music on the Main Stage on the Promenade.

The last two hours of the night happen on Forest Avenue, under the lights and heaters that went in this year. If you want a table, aim for the gap between the tree lighting and 7 p.m.

A Surf Museum Around the Corner

The plaza isn't the only new reason to stay downtown into the evening. The Surfing Heritage and Culture Center, known as SHACC, held a ribbon cutting on Friday, Sept. 18, and opened to the public that weekend, the Register reported. Its 12,000-square-foot building runs between Broadway Street and Ocean Avenue. SHACC's own site lists the main entrance and parking at 232 Ocean Ave. Admission is free, and it's open Tuesday through Sunday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Holiday hours may vary.

Inside, a timeline of surfboards lines the outer walls. A rotating Hawaii exhibit, "From Hawaii with Aloha," covers early surfing and its icons from 1908 to 1945, as the Laguna Beach Independent described. Other sections cover competition, surf shops, fashion, and films and music, and there's an upstairs library and archive. The Register also mentions an interactive "Stoke Machine" about waves around the world. SHACC closes at 6, so it fits before an early dinner on Forest.

Getting Downtown in the Off-Season

Off-season schedules make cool-weather evenings downtown easier to plan. The city's off-season trolley runs from Sept. 8, 2026, through June 25, 2027. The Coastal Route runs daily every 20 to 30 minutes. The Canyon Route runs on weekends from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m., every 30 minutes, from the $5 Lot 16.

Under the city's off-season parking rules, Lot 23 is open to the public after 7 p.m. Monday through Thursday, after 5 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and all day Sunday. The rest of the time it's reserved for library patrons. One more thing to plan around: the city's Downtown Zone 4 street overlay and walkway project began in October and is expected to finish in December 2026.

The Candice Blair Group follows changes like the Promenade on Forest because they shape what a downtown Laguna Beach evening is like for the people who live here. If you'd like to talk about how downtown is changing, or what it means for your own plans in Laguna Beach, we're glad to hear from you. Contact Us.