The La Jolla Community Planning Association didn’t meet the 25 percent membership attendance required to reach a quorum last Thursday, Oct. 4, causing the controversial bylaw issue to be adjourned. But meeting attendees found a different issue to focus their energy on: the La Jolla lifeguard station at 850 Coast Blvd., or the Children’s Pool.
Some LJCPA members argued that to approve the new lifeguard tower would violate the “Community Plan and Local Coastal Program Land Use Plan,” which consists of goals, policies and recommendations to preserve natural resources, mainly “views.”
But lifeguards who work at the station said that the existing edifice is old and should be condemned. The project passed the Park and Beaches Committee Sept. 24 and has been presented to the planning group many times, project manager Jihad Sleiman said.
Lifeguard Lt. John R. Greenhalgh attended the LJCPA meeting to present the lifeguards’ viewpoint and to explain the current situation at the tower. Sleiman and project architect James Robbins joined him. After attending previous meetings, Greenhalgh anticipated some opposition from the group.
The lifeguards’ safety may currently be in question. Two years ago, the overhang fell off the tower to the lower area. The city came out. inspected the lower area and fenced it off, but no one has been back to inspect it since. So, lifeguards work in the rest of the building, Sleiman said.
“The lifeguards are used to it,” Sleiman said.
“I just hope when it falls no lifeguards are in it,” Greenhalgh said. “But I want the community to know I’m also a part of the community. I started my career in La Jolla and I’m going to finish my career here in La Jolla.”
Greenhalgh, who seemed worn down by the end of the evening, told the planning association he would not come back to the meetings anymore. He said he was concerned the lifeguard station at the Children’s Pool could collapse any day. The station is outdated, he said, so the locker room that was built only for men has a towel hanging to give the women guards some privacy. Guards must yell “clear” before entering. The toilet does not work properly, although the planners didn’t want to hear the details.
LJCPA members had their own concerns, mainly with the proposed tower blocking their view and also with proposed office space and parking. Some members proposed building office space at a different location and shuttling lifeguards back and forth.
“I can’t keep going through why we have to [have offices] but I’ll do it one more time,” Greenhalgh said. “It’s not that I’m there as an office worker. I am there as a supervisor, but at times I do the same exact job as the lifeguards.”
Then, members asked Greenhalgh where he would park, and where his lifeguards would park.
“Look, it happens time and time again ” I function like the other lifeguards,” Greenhalgh said. “When I get a call, we don’t want to have me driving through downtown La Jolla on a ‘Code 3,’ potentially hitting your family or rolling the car and killing me.”
After presenting designs for the tower, architect Robbins calmly watched as LJCPA board member and architect Phil Merten presented some sketches of his own.
“I am not saying I think we should use my designs,” Merten said.
He used an easel to display foam core with three different designs of the future lifeguard station, along with another foam core presentation of the land-use recommendations, which he read.
“In order to be approved, it must enhance and protect the public view,” Merten said. “But it is not enhancing or protecting my public view.”
Project manager Sleiman said that if the city used Merten’s three-story design, not only would they need an elevator to meet the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), but the building could not be constructed with so many windows. In order to be a sturdy structure, it must contain more supports.
“It is wonderful to work with people who care so passionately about every single improvement,” Robbins said. “Not to take away from Phil’s design. And with all due respect, Phil, it doesn’t mean that views can’t be altered.”
Robbins said his design has a view in more directions than Merten’s and it will conform to the ADA, Robbins said.
After the debate, the votes were counted and the lifeguard station passed, said LJCPA trustee Darcy Ashley.
Although the station may have gained a small victory, it could be short-lived.
“They have not technically applied for the permits, so they will be coming back again once they have the different permits,” Ashley said.