City of San Diego lifeguards have battled with La Jolla planning groups for nearly seven years to gain approval to rebuild the crumbling, now-condemned Children\u2019s Pool lifeguard station \u2013 a battle that ended in victory last Thursday when the La Jolla Community Planning Association (LJCPA) OKed a new tower. LJCPA trustee Tim Lucas expressed the frustration felt by both sides Oct. 2, saying, “There\u2019s been more debate on this than on the bailout bill that\u2019s been going around.” LJCPA members narrowly passed a motion to recommend the project, voting 8-6-0 to forward the lifeguard station plans to a city of San Diego hearing officer. According to lifeguard Lt. John Greenhalgh, the city can now begin building the station unless someone appeals the decision, he said. Greenhalgh started working with the community nearly seven years ago, he said. At that time, issues with La Jolla\u2019s lifeguard stations seemed tame compared to today\u2019s issues. About a year ago, the city condemned the Children\u2019s Pool tower, concerned that the crumbling cement and structural cracks could echo the tragedies occurring at that same time on Mount Soledad. Officials erected temporary towers and trailers. “We worked with the community for seven years,” Greenhalgh said. “We didn\u2019t get exactly what we wanted, but I think it\u2019s going to meet our operational needs.” La Jolla planning group members and city of San Diego project manager Jihad Sleiman agreed on various issues about the Children\u2019s Pool project, including a narrower access ramp, less landscaping and more plaza. Sleiman said he narrowed a beach access ramp from 12 feet to 7 feet and removed landscaping from the plans. But some members continued to express concerns regarding the tower\u2019s footprint \u2014 mainly its impact on the community\u2019s view. “There were concerns about increasing space in the public plaza,” Sleiman said. “We reduced landscaping. The ADA ramp was 12 feet wide and we narrowed it to 7 feet wide. We even removed a flag pole to accommodate the public\u2019s desire.” But Sleiman\u2019s concessions seemed futile moments after he spoke, when trustees began voicing their concerns regarding duties of the San Diego lifeguards especially relating to the Children\u2019s Pool area. LJCPA trustee Orrin Gabsch opened a Pandora\u2019s box among the other trustees when he said lifeguards would have too much room for daily administrative work in the proposed Children\u2019s Pool tower \u2014 an area one trustee said “could be guarded by someone sitting in a chair.” “I think the size of this is beyond what the lifeguard needs and I\u2019m going to oppose it for that reason,” Gabsch said. Trustee Bob Collins agreed with Gabsch. LJCPA trustee Tony Crisafi said he toured the Pacific Beach lifeguard station, which is larger than the proposed Children\u2019s Pool tower. “I think you have a good argument,” Crisafi said, regarding Gabsch\u2019s concerns about administrative rooms. “But I don\u2019t know if it\u2019s too big for me to approve it.” Then Gabsch said the lifeguards don\u2019t need the size kitchen that was proposed. “This side is a prime vista point in San Diego,” LJCPA trustee David Little said. “It occurs to me it could be guarded by someone sitting in a chair. It seems to me that the use is administrative offices and storage and that\u2019s a poor use.” Many trustees said they wanted to use a different design by former La Jolla planning member and architect Phil Merten. But trustee Lance Peto said he witnessed lifeguards saving lives on several occasions from the Children\u2019s Pool lifeguard station. “Lifeguards were there in a minute,” Peto said. “Another time I saw two saves from that lifeguard station.” Some trustees said lifeguards went a long way regarding the proposed tower\u2019s design, while others wanted to oppose the design, saying they were not “convinced [the tower] is primarily a lifeguard station.” “Someone higher up than us has made the decision those offices should be there,” LJCPA trustee Darcy Ashley said. Ashley made a motion to approve the project, adding conditions such as officials flatten the roof out and that the coastal commission approves the narrowed ramp. For more information regarding LJCPA, go to www.lajollacpa.org. For more information about City of San Diego lifeguards, go to www.sandiego.gov\/lifeguards.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
City of San Diego lifeguards have battled with La Jolla planning groups for nearly seven years to gain approval to rebuild the crumbling, now-condemned Children\u2019s Pool lifeguard station \u2013 a battle that ended in victory last Thursday when the La Jolla Community Planning Association (LJCPA) OKed a new tower. LJCPA trustee Tim Lucas expressed the […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":277783,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11560","_seopress_titles_title":"LOOK OUT BELOW","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11560,11551,11550],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-277782","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-la-jolla-village-news","category-news","category-top-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277782","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=277782"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277782\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/277783"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=277782"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=277782"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=277782"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}