The South Beach restroom and arts funding dominated Tuesday’s city council meeting.
The proposed restroom at South Beach passed a major hurdle when the city council certified an environmental impact report (EIR) approved a coastal permit and the exterior design for the project. A mitigation monitoring and reporting program was also approved. The vote was 5-0.
Located near Avenida del Sol, the restroom will be above the tide and hidden from the street. A sand colored roof will further camouflage the building and help preserve people’s view of the beach and the Hotel Del, according to the Bill Cecile, the city’s capital projects manager.
A handful of people spoke out against the project at the meeting arguing that the city should look at alternative sites before moving forward.
“It locates the bathroom on the sand [and there is] a high probability that it will be flooded,” said Rich Brady.
Planning Commissioner Harry DeNardi sent the council a five page letter contending that the project violates the city’s local coastal plan.
According to DeNardi the site is unacceptable because there is no parking, no landscaping and a potential for beach erosion. DeNardi’s and Brady’s contentions were quickly shot down by city staff and council members.
“Parking is an amenity,” said Jesse Brown, senior city planner, pointing out that the restrooms on Central and North Beach don’t have parking, nor are they landscaped.
City attorney Johanna Canlas and Councilwoman Carrie Downey both pointed out that erosion concerns in coastal plans apply to bluffs, not wide beaches.
As for flooding, Councilman Mike Woiwode pointed out that “for that restroom to flood the road has to flood. Basements and garages in the Shores would have to flood and that hasn’t happened since 1984.”
The project has been under consideration since 2010. “Years of study have gone into this,” Mayor Casey Tanaka said. “It has gone by the book. We need to move forward.”
Strategic Arts Funding
After a successful year celebrating Coronado’s 125th Birthday, the Cultural Arts Commission (CAC) asked the city for $120 thousand to develop a strategic plan.
”The goal is to reflect what we want to our community to be,” said Bill Lowman, Cultural Arts Commissioner who proffered the idea. “When you drill down what makes a community great, it is its arts and culture.”
The CAC has been trying to develop a strategic plan for three years. “It always ran into something – the city’s 125th birthday celebration or some other project,” Lowman said.
Most of the CAC’s work is accomplished by volunteers. It has a paid staff of one, Kelly Purvis, who earns $63 thousand a year and receives no benefits. The city gives the commission $250 a year for memberships fees and $2,500 for miscellaneous expenses, such as printing.
“If we expect to be good stewards, we have to have a plan,” Purvis said. Developing one costs money.
Knowing that it needed funding to push its work to the next level, the CAC launched two fundraising initiatives at the end of last year. It sold commemorative pillows and sponsorships to the Mayor’s Dinner. There was also a silent auction at the dinner that raised $18,000. The dinner was the last event of Celebrate Coronado-125 and the only one designed to be a fundraiser, former CAC chair Heidi Wilson said.
The pillows, the dinner, and contributions and grants raised $123 thousand. The money was placed in the city’s general fund, because the city doesn’t have a line item for the arts in its budget, Purvis explained.
The CAC now wants $120 thousand of those funds, all of which were donated for the arts, for its strategic plan.
Tanaka, Woiwode and Bill Sandke gave immediate and full support to the plan. “It would be mean to let you raise money and not let you spend it,” Tanaka said.
Mayor-elect Richard Bailey and Downey were skeptical. “What are we going to do with the information? What is the ultimate end?” Downey asked.
To assure the public that the money was being well spent, Bailey insisted on a Request for Funding that would allow the council “to go line by line” to assess the expenses. Bowing to Bailey’s and Downey’s concerns, the council voted 5-0 to require the Request for Funding in order to consider funding the strategic plan.
Other actions
The council approved two condo conversions at 1014 Fifth Street and at 900 G Avenue without comment or discussion. It approved Woiwode’s request to discuss a voter initiative that would give city council members a pay raise at a future meeting.
