Creating policy for the Children’s Pool stalled at the city’s Natural Resources and Culture Committee on March 17 when half the board wanted to get more information on options for managing the land — and the other half wanted to vote on closing the beach during pupping season. No recommendation will move forward to the City Council. The Natural Resources and Culture Committee will discuss the issue again at a special meeting on Monday, April 5, from 8:30 a.m. to 11 a.m. District 1 City Councilwoman Sherri Lightner, who represents La Jolla, made a motion to ask staff to study the various options for the beach during seal pupping season, including a) keep the status quo of roping off most of the beach, b) reposition the rope, c) close the beach completely, d) close the beach at night. Lightner also wanted to establish a task force on the Children’s Pool to review other issues like year-round closure of the beach and human use during the summer. “A plan with buy-in from the community and involved stakeholders will have the greatest chance for success,” Lightner said. But committee chair Donna Frye (District 6) and member Marti Emerald (District 7) wanted to move forward on the issue. “In my opinion, those proposals will not change from the different sides,” Frye said, adding that the committee has discussed the issue for the last eight years. “We can spend more staff time and more staff money and go out to the community and when this issue comes back, you can expect to see the same people with the same proposals. “We will continue to have more and more problems as this is drawn out,” Frye continued. “Passions will rise. Let’s at least set one set of rules for the pupping season.” Joe La Cava, president of the La Jolla Community Planning Association, requested the city allow the planning group to vet the issue before the City Council makes a decision, which Lightner supported. Parking is scarce in the area and the Children’s Pool attracts a large crowd to the neighborhood, La Cava said. “Please don’t forget this is the backyard of our community,” La Cava said at the meeting. The battle over the Children’s Pool landed in the City Council’s lap when Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a bill permitting the beach to also be used as a marine mammal park in late 2009. Until then the city had been obligated to maintain the beach as a bathing pool for children, according to Ellen Browning Scripps’ stipulations when she funded the breakwater and deeded the city the property to maintain in 1931.