Laguna Hills’ DMV is set to close in October

The California Department of Motor Vehicles is permanently closing its Laguna Hills location off of Moulton Parkway on Oct. 11.

Announced earlier this month, a DMV spokesperson said the closure will not be followed by the opening of a new location. “The DMV is no longer pursuing another site,” said spokesperson Chris Orrock.

The DMV initially intended to open a substitute location in Mission Viejo, it said in a news release, but the planned location in the Kaleidoscope shopping mall was axed by the City Council in June over traffic and safety concerns.

The Laguna Hills location, opened in 1987, “does not meet the current needs of the DMV,” said Orrock.

And without plans to open another location in the area, Orrock suggested Laguna Hills residents turn to digitalized services.

“The DMV has spent the last few years digitizing services, improving efficiencies and making more than 90% of transactions conveniently available on a phone, tablet, laptop or computer,” he said.

For Californians, the DMV has doubled the number of online services offered in 2019 to what is presently available on the DMV website, including name and address changes, the department said.

And as part of the move to go digital, select services such as driver’s license renewals, requests for vehicle registration records or driver’s license records and replacing a driver’s license are now only offered out-of-office.

For business that cannot be completed online, over the phone, at DMV kiosks or through DMV partners, like finalizing a REAL-ID application, the agency encourages its customers to visit other locations at 1330 East 1st St., Santa Ana; 650 West 19th St., Costa Mesa; or 2727 Via Cascadita, San Clemente.

Staff from the Laguna Hills office, 23535 Moulton Parkway, will be transferred to other DMV locations, according to the news release.

In June, the Mission Viejo City Council rejected a plan for a new, full-service DMV — it would have been the first for the city — to be located in a vacant spot in the Kaleidoscope shopping mall off Crown Valley Parkway. But that location would offer behind-the-wheel driving tests, and the potential driving routes would enter adjacent neighborhoods, including those next to Viejo Elementary School and Carl Hankey Academy.

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