Month: December 2013

By Matthew Wood

It’s officially the holiday season in Ocean Beach: The OB Christmas tree has been planted in the sand.

The 60-foot-or-so star pine was cut down Tuesday morning from the yard of the Kuhn family at 4879 Coronado Ave. and transported with much fanfare to its spot near the boardwalk just off Newport Avenue and Abbott Street.

“Whenever we do a tree, we want to find one that can be donated,” said OB Town Council president Gretchen Newsom, who said the tree’s roots were coming into the house and it needed to be cut down anyway.

Looks like the Ocean Beach Planning Board has a full agenda for their monthly meeting tonight, Wed., Dec. 4th. The Board meets at 6pm sharp inside the OB Recreation Center at Santa Monica and Ebers.

Two big ticket items are the OB Community Plan Update and CVS Pharmacy’s alcohol permit. Also included are applications for demolitions of 2 single family houses on the 4700 block of Del Mar Avenue and additions to two buildings on Castelar Street.

The Board will also be doing some housekeeping for their upcoming annual election in March of next year.

Just recently, the Ocean Beach Town Council passed a resolution that supports the ban on plastic bags in the City of San Diego. When the Council met, it passed it in support of the ordinance before the City.

Here is some of the language in the Resolution (which can be found on the OBTC website):

• More than 500 million single-use plastic bags are distributed annually in San Diego, and approximately 3% are recycled.
• Improper disposal results in plastic bags becoming windblown through our streets, parks, and beaches, clogging our storm drains and sewers, degrading our soils and waterways, and threatening the lives of avian and marine species.

On the online San Diego Reader, there is a cartoon by Neal Obermeyer that refers to the OB felony shrub trimmer and takes a swing at District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis at her office’s prosecution of Vince Adame – charged with felony vandalism for trimming city-owned hedges, and then who had them dismissed this week.

Test results on possible contamination of the waters at OB’s Dog Beach and South Mission Beach are expected today, Wed. afternoon, Dec. 4th.

The County Environmental Health department ordered the beaches closed on Sunday because of a large 22,500 gallon sewage spill a few miles from the beaches up the San Diego River in Mission Valley. Both beaches have been closed since.

According to the water department, the spill originated close to I-15 along the San Diego River when pipes were broken or moved by roots.

By Matthew Wood

The nightmare that has been Vince Adame’s long shrubbery saga is finally over.

He has been battling a citation over his trimming of some bushes across the alley from his house that somehow turned into a felony vandalism charge. When the district attorney’s office finally dropped the charges Monday night, the longtime Ocean Beach resident was able to breathe a sigh of relief.

A press conference …

The OB Planning Board has a meeting this Wednesday, Dec.4th and CVS Pharmacy’s requested alcohol permit is an agenda item. CVS is planning to move into the former Apple Tree Market building on Santa Monica Avenue in downtown OB.

At last month’s Planning Board meeting, Gretchen Newsom, the head of the OB Town Council, had requested CVS to provide a “Community Benefits Package” and to detail how CVS proposes to involve itself in the local community.

The Law Office of Frank Gormlie has announced that a press conference will be held Tuesday morning, December 3rd, where Vince Adame will announce that the felony charges against him for trimming city-owned hedges have been dismissed.

Vince Adame had been charged with felony vandalism, a violation of Penal Code 594, accused of maliciously destroying five bushes of New Zealand Christmas Tree on a slice of city-owned land behind 5072 Niagara Avenue in OB – right above the OB Pier parking lot.

Large sections of area beaches remain closed due to a huge sewage spill on Sunday, Dec 1. Dog Beach is included in the list of closed beaches. Also parts of South Mission Beach. The spill was caused by nearly 22,000 gallons contaminating the San Diego River near I-15.

By Thor Kamban Biberman / The Daily Transcript /November 27, 2013

A proposal for three hotels totaling 650 rooms at Liberty Station, where a single Nickelodeon hotel had been planned before the recession, is scheduled to be heard by the California Coastal Commission on Dec. 12 in San Francisco.

Plans currently call for a 252-room, all-suites hotel; a 215 room, residence-style hotel with kitchenettes; and a 183-room hotel with a mix of standard rooms and suites. A total of 701 parking spaces would serve the hotels.

Here is the agenda for the monthly meeting of the OB Planning Board for Wed., Dec. 4th. The meeting begins at 6pm sharp and is held at the OB Rec Center, at 4726 Santa Monica Avenue.

The Ocean Beach Town Council is still looking for volunteers for helping to run the OB Holiday Parade this weekend.

We still need more volunteers for the positions of Staging Assistants, Traffic Barricade Guards, and Security/Crowd Control Volunteers! We have filled all positions for Announcers and Block Captains.

The Ocean Beach Town Council needs help – we almost have all the 100 responsible persons who are volunteering for the 34th Annual Ocean Beach Holiday Parade.

The Holiday Parade occurs on Saturday, December 7, 2013, and it cannot occur without the dedicated support of our volunteers.

Please CLICK HERE to sign up to Volunteer!