Residents in Pacific Beach Mobilize Against Large Lifeguard Center Planned for Coastal Bluffs

by on August 25, 2015 · 6 comments

in Civil Rights, Culture, Environment, History, Ocean Beach, Organizing, Politics, San Diego

PB Opp Pet vs LifeG 01

Artist rendering of proposed lifeguard command center at end of Law St in PB.

Residents up in Pacific Beach are mobilizing against a large lifeguard command center that the City of San Diego wants to build right on the coastal cliffs at the end of Law Street. They feel the project is way over-sized and would destroy the beautiful and valuable bluff at that location.

PB Opp Pet vs LifeG 02

Current appearance of the coastal bluff at end of Law St.

One PB community activist wrote us to urge us to sign:

Please  sign this people’s petition to halt plans, and reconsider site locations, of the lifeguard station proposed to concrete the Law St beach and canyon for $7 million.

We believe this land to be invaluable to the city of San Diego as a natural and cultural treasure, and that no consideration has gone into other options for a lifeguard facility.

We believe that this coastal cliff and disappearing beach will not sustain development of this magnitude.

We will lose public views and beach access, while creating an urban blight zone in a concreted canyon.

Yes, that is what will happen. Expensive ugliness in the place of natural free beauty.

We have loved this beach for generations, let’s save it for the future generations. There are many other options for the lifeguard parking garage…

They’ve got a petition going and are urging everyone to sign it. And here is what the Petition states:

Please Understand: We are not against the lifeguards!

We Are Against a lifeguard command center of this size being built in this beautiful location, and in a residential neighborhood.

This plan will just create more problems for our residential neighborhood. It would change the very character of our community. This ~$7 Million dollar construction, will attract many unsavory elements North to our neighborhood. Yet the governmental agencies backing this project have not addressed these issues, nor offered any solutions for them.

This construction of this project will destroy the beauty of our beach, create traffic, crime, and attract homeless to our neighborhood. We NEED YOUR HELP getting our concerns heard by City Council, and the Lifeguards.

We need your help to stop theiIssuance of a City Site Development Permit so that we can seek other more appropriate solutions for this beautiful, and environmentally sensitive area.

The location at Law Street is inappropriate for this 3563? sq/ft Command Center and storage facility that is being proposed. The beach, coastal bluffs, and views are beautiful, peaceful, and a valuable asset for all to enjoy, and should be preserved.

We would like the opportunity to explore alternative solutions other than this proposed 3500 sq/ft Command Center which is being pushed on the community without our ability to respond appropriately to the effect it will have on our neighborhood, and beautiful local beaches.

This Plan is NOT integrated with the community, nor does it address other critical issues in this area.

Please Understand: We are not against public safety! There is simply NO DATA to support the NEED for a Lifeguard Command Center of this size being built in this beautiful location, and in a residential neighborhood.

{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }

OB Mercy August 25, 2015 at 1:45 pm

And yet, here in OB, we can’t get a much needed new main lifeguard station we’ve been promised by the city for how many years now?? Where did the City of SD get the dough for this? Ridiculous and completely unfair!!

Faulconer…are you listening?? Can’t even get you to divert some of your crony/big biz money to the little beach communities you seem to have forgotten?

Don’t even get me started on your total disregard with no health insurance for our lifeguards who SHOULD be thought of as first responders considering they risk life and limb every day to save people!!

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Micporte August 25, 2015 at 4:20 pm

The high tides come up into this beach canyon, and up to the base of the cliffs regularly, the grunion are becoming rare on this coast because of beach maintenance and patrol on our disappearing beaches ..this canyon could be the last beach…. They should build in an already developed area,.
Grunion are a unique species of Southern California/Baja, with one of the most amazing life cycles of the fish world. We are paving and armor flexing their territories when we build streets and parking on the beach. Wish the lifeguards would want to save the life of the grunion, as well as the human…

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Debbie August 25, 2015 at 6:32 pm

Spend $7 MILLION DOLLARS????

For what?

Fire who ever is proposing this nonsense! Our tax dollars can be better spent!

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Rufus August 26, 2015 at 5:59 am

I don’t have a beef with building a lifeguard tower at that location, it will look better than a lot of the mega-houses along Ocean, but $7 million? Dang.

Stick with the portable towers. We dont need another lifeguard Taj Mahal.

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Rslayter August 26, 2015 at 2:11 pm

This project has gone up 3 million dollars since 2012 when we asked them at the last sub-committee meetings to scale it back…a couple of mayors later, it is scaled up to $7 million..waste of a perfectly good and self sustaining natural beach canyon. This project is not capital improvements, but capital waste, beaches are what we got the best of, keep them. Don’t get me started on the undefined storm water run off plan that is not specified in their site development plans… Reject.

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Micporte August 26, 2015 at 5:06 pm

Just got off the phone with Shoreline Ranger Rich, 858-581-9980, via park rangers, via parks and rec, who expressed that grunion shall be granted and expected to habitate un-patrolled sections of beach like Blacks Beach and Silver Strand, not so much anymore LJ Shores, LaJolla, Bird Rock, Pacific, Mission, Ocean, Point Loma, Coronado… Because of increased safety and beach maintenance patrols.
Hope the grunion get the message.

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