CANDO Publishes Full Transcript of Canyon-Focused Candidate Forum

The Canyon Alliance of Neighborhoods Defense Organization has published the complete recording and a searchable transcript of its Sept. 10 City Council candidate forum, the session that put all nine qualified candidates on the record about Laguna Canyon. The discussion runs approximately 1 hour and 59 minutes.

The forum was moderated by CANDO's president and focused on canyon issues: wildfire protection, housing sites, creeks and wildlife corridors, the meaning of canyon character, planning-department processes, community input, and open-space acquisition. With nine candidates in the race, the moderator skipped opening and closing statements so answers could carry the evening; each candidate got 1 minute and 30 seconds per question, with possible follow-ups.

Homes perch on the ridge above the coastal scrub hillsides of Aliso and Wood Canyons Wilderness Park.

Tracie Hall, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons · Source

The seven indexed answer rounds covered a lot of ground. On wildfire, candidates weighed grant money for evacuation stress tests, communications, fuel modification, and undergrounding along Laguna Canyon Road. On housing, they debated site-by-site evaluation versus distribution across town, state housing-planning requirements, and how to preserve local control and avoid the state's builder's remedy. On the canyon itself, the talk ran from mapping blue-line streams and connecting regional wildlife corridors to writing objective, parcel-specific development standards that define rural character without one rule for the whole canyon. On city processes, candidates proposed clearer ordinances, measurable customer-service expectations, and reconciling contradictory land-use documents.

One recurring question was money for open space: whether the city should continue a $300,000 annual allocation for acquiring parcels and replenishing the open-space fund, with some candidates favoring the set-aside tied to preservation and maintenance benefits and others arguing the city should chase outside grants instead of committing city dollars.

A paved trail winds through chaparral in Aliso and Wood Canyons Wilderness Park.

Tracie Hall, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons · Source

The transcript carries 408 timestamped passages drawn from automatic captions, with light corrections to candidate names and clear civic terms; the hosting page notes the video itself remains the authoritative record. Readers can search the full text or jump straight to any candidate's complete set of answers.

CANDO describes its mission as protecting Laguna Canyon's rural, low-density and small-scale character, neighborhood integrity, corridor safety and long-term planning. The forum is one of several in the 2026 council race: the Laguna Canyon Conservancy held its forum Sept. 28 with a full video released Oct. 1, the Laguna Beach Arts Alliance hosted candidates Sept. 26 at the Forum Theater, and the South Laguna Civic Association's forum is next, Tuesday, Oct. 6, at the Community Recreation Center.