Last month, eCoronado published the first story in a multi-part series on the City of Coronado’s public restrooms. The goal of the series is to provide readers with an overview of the history and status of the public restroom facilities available as part of our Parks and Recreation community. January marks the first month of multiple renovation projects getting underway in the early stages of planning. The City Council will soon vote on approving repairs to the Central Beach Public Restrooms; specifically, repairs related to the deferred maintenance and dry rot damage to the roof structure and other general facility improvements. The repair is expected to officially begin in February and will temporarily close the permanent facility.
In November 2014, the City placed the new ‘Mobile Restroom Trailer’ at the Central Beach site after heavy rains compacted the sand making the transfer possible. The Mobile Restroom Trailer was introduced to the public last fall and spent several weeks at its first location on Avenida Del Sol on the public beach access road between the Coronado Shores and the Hotel Del Coronado. The Mobile Restroom facility is relatively new and can be moved to different locations to handle temporary or seasonal needs for public restroom facilities, although placement options are limited as it requires both water and electrical hook-ups in order to operate. While the Central Beach Restrooms are closed for repairs, the Mobile Restroom Facility will be open for use and will provide beach goers with two standard unisex restrooms and one ADA compliant restroom. The City is in the process of preparing the documents for the repairs and, if approved, will begin the bidding process for the project in the next 30 days. A timeline for construction has not yet been determined.
Also taking place this month is the kick-off for the renovation of the Spreckels Park restroom facilities. The current restrooms are non-ADA compliant and inadequate in size to serve the volume of users the park receives. The City awarded the design contract to Hanah Gabriel Wells Architect last month, an architectural design firm based in San Diego. Randy Hanah of HGW Architect will be the lead architect on the project and I interviewed him about his firm’s approach to civic projects. Despite the small nature of a public restroom project, Hanah stated that “even the smallest project is an opportunity to make the environment better and strive for the best design.” HGW has both civic and residential project experience, and has previously worked for the City of Coronado in performing earlier studies on the design for a possible public restroom at the South Beach location. Hanah recognized Spreckels Park as the “crown jewel of parks in Coronado” and looks forward to working closely with the community to understand the needs and program for the public restroom design.
The City will initiate the project by determining the general program requirements this month and will be announcing the community workshop once the priorities have been established by stakeholders that the City has defined, such as the Historic Resource Commission, Concert in the Park Committee, and the Design Review Commission. The community workshop will be announced publicly as soon as the project guidelines are established.
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Katy Hendrickson
Staff Writer
eCoronado.com
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