A group of peninsula residents wants to form a Peninsula Town Council because of what they believe is a lack of community representation on the Peninsula Community Planning Board (PCPB) pertaining to issues affecting residents, said Marcie Rothman, a member of the Peninsula Town Council Formation Committee. Aside from advising the city on land use and planning, the PCPB has traditionally been the forum where residents speak publicly on salient community issues. “As concerned citizens, we feel that there needed to be another outlet and venue for the community, a better forum where voices from the community can get involved,” Rothman said. Although still in the early “information gathering” stages, the 10- to 12-member group plans to eventually establish an elected board with the goal of preserving and improving the quality of life on the Peninsula, Rothman said. The group would address important community issues like airport noise, infrastructure, and development. Traffic along Rosecrans Street and North Harbor Drive stemming from improvements there have also piqued the community’s interest, Rothman said. The local community planning group, according to Rothman, does not serve the community well as a public forum. Time constraints often don’t allow for more than three minutes of public comment per person, according to PCPB chair Charles Mellor. He said town council members may speak at PCPB meetings or “wherever they want to.” “As far as I know, the town council isn’t elected,” Mellor said. “I don’t know who [sic] they represent other than the 11 people passing e-mails back and forth. I don’t know where their authority comes from or how they portend to represent the community.” Other San Diego communities like Ocean Beach, Mission Beach and Pacific Beach have both a community planning group and a town council. The beach-area town councils traditionally serve as a venue for communication between city officials and residents. They also serve as a forum for debate or discussion over community issues. City Council members usually send a council representative to town council meetings. As such, the town council represents a political force for the community. “That’s basically what we do,” said Pacific Beach Town Council President Rick Oldham. “And the city can heed what we say and do something or it can ignore us.” Town councils also host events like pancake breakfasts, festivals or beautification campaigns. Established town councils usually have a broad local membership and an elected board of directors. Pacific Beach Town Council boasts a membership of 600 residents, families and businesses. Members voluntarily pay a yearly membership fee ranging from $20 for a single member to $50 for a registered business member. The membership elects a 17-member board of directors, with officers including a president, vice president and treasurer. The money is used to pay for an office and a part-time office manager. “All the rest goes into the community,” Oldham said. But without a set of bylaws, a mission statement and standing rules, the Peninsula Town Council Formation Committee can meet in private without worry of breaking open-meeting laws. For now, the committee is an unofficial board with a relatively small membership. Lance Murphy, a former PCPB member and watchdog working on airport-noise issues, has signed on with the committee. His group, represented through the website www.sannoise.org, claims a 500-person membership. The proposed Point Loma Town Council also wants to address airport-noise issues, Murphy said. Whether the San Diego City Council sees the emerging Peninsula Town Council as an official political group remains to be seen. Asked whether the city would support the movement, Murphy said he doesn’t care if the community recognizes them. District 2 City Councilman Kevin Faulconer said the Peninsula is a very diverse community with differing points of view. “If the community and the residents believe they need another voice, I will support the neighbors getting together to come to their own conclusion,” Faulconer said. “The more people get involved in a community, the better.”