Residents have replaced about five memorial benches that were removed by the city for liability reasons from choice spots along Sunset Cliffs Boulevard — punctuating differences in the community’s vision over safety and quality of life issues inside Sunset Cliffs Natural Park. The recent removal of the benches sparked community debate over the implementation of the Sunset Cliffs Master Plan during a meeting of the Sunset Cliffs Natural Park Recreation Council on June 1. That plan also calls for the return of the Point Loma Nazarene University/community softball field to its natural state. The dominant topic of the meeting, however, was the return of the benches along Sunset Cliffs Boulevard, which have long served as a social gathering point and rest area for neighbors, walkers, joggers and skaters. The park council voted unanimously Monday to return some benches to park property in the main parking lots. It is unclear, however, whether the city will allow the unauthorized return of the community’s memorial benches along Sunset Cliffs Boulevard, said Dan Daneri, district manager of shoreline parks for the city’s Park and Recreation Department. Daneri said his department will review the city’s decision to remove them. “Our first goal is the ones in the parking lots,” Daneri said. “We’ll revisit the ones on [Sunset Cliffs Boulevard].” Monday’s meeting opened community debate on several issues. Joel Siegfried, a 38-year resident, highlighted several potential dangers that walkers and joggers encounter along the trail. “People have been injured by these [exposed bolts from the bench removal],” he said. “I don’t know if you’ve been sued but people have been injured.” He pointed to jagged protruding bolts, adding that people continue to sit on the guardrail even without benches. About 30 residents, staff members from City Council District 2 and an Ocean Beach Town Council representative attended the meeting to speak out on several topics concerning the Sunset Cliffs Natural Park Master Plan. Part of the plan includes allowing a softball field inside the park to return to its natural state. Point Loma Nazarene University has maintained the softball field for roughly 30 years, according to Point Loma Nazarene University (PLNU) spokeswoman Megan Ekard. The field played home to the university’s women’s softball team. PLNU officials said decisions affecting the park are out of their hands. “We realize that it was a great resource for the community but there was really nothing more we could do about it,” said Ekard, PLNU’s director of community outreach and governmental relations, during a phone interview. Ann Swanson, chair of the Sunset Cliffs Natural Park Recreation Council, said the return of the ballfield to its natural state was part of the plan all along. “The baseball field was temporary,” Swanson said. “[And] the city was ready for the next steps of the master plan.” A walk through the campus and around the park reveals that some in the community have started to notice the effects of the plan. Many families and others in the community used to play baseball and have picnics on the softball field, said Dan Citron, an Ocean Beach resident who walks his dog through the park almost daily. “Now we’re going to be left with a dustbowl,” said Citron, who sat among audience members Monday. He added that developments in the park, such as a gate installed by the Navy, limit public access along the trails to relatively secluded beach areas. Leaders of the Sunset Cliffs Natural Park Council said the plan has been in the works for more than a decade and invited Monday’s participants and others to attend future meetings. The City Council approved the Sunset Cliffs Master Plan in 2005 after an extensive environmental review process, Swanson said. The master plan calls for the placement of native plants and vegetation. The plan caused some community upheaval with the removal of eucalyptus trees around the park several months ago. But while some in the community worry about trees, benches and baseball fields, Ocean Beach resident Richard Aguirre said residents are missing the bigger problems stemming from erosion of the cliffs caused by surface runoff during heavy rain. Aguirre founded the group Save Sunset Cliffs, a grassroots group of Ocean Beach and neighboring residents who want to preserve the park and it’s historic surf-community culture. Aguirre said is also planning to run for governor of California. Aguirre has been pushing the city to install a storm drain along Cordova Street to prevent some of the rainwater runoff from undermining sections of the boulevard and cliffs. He said ongoing improvements will change the historic surfing culture of Ocean Beach and Sunset Cliffs Natural Park into a tourist trap. “We need to preserve the boulevard and … cliffs and keep the city from turning it into another Mission Trails,” Aguirre said during the meeting. A handful of Save Sunset Cliffs members attended Monday’s meeting. The Sunset Cliffs Natural Park Recreation Council has about 32 voting members who act as the official advisory committee to the city of San Diego. The Sunset Cliffs Natural Park Recreation Council voted in 2008 to limit the number of voting members to 35 at the direction of the San Diego Park and Recreation Department’s director. The council meets on the first Monday of the month at the Cabrillo Recreation Center, 3051 Cañon St. at 6:45 p.m. The group meets next on July 6.