No Way to Run a Beach Club

   The Santa Monica City Council chambers were redolent with pleasure and delight Tuesday, July 20, as the Council approved the proposal for the rehab of the old beach club, now called 415, on Pacific Coast Highway.

   One after another, Council members applauded the proposal and the Working Group which had devised the proposal -- which included two Council members, Mike Feinstein and Ken Genser, as well as City staff and consulting architects.

   It was right and fitting, they said, the historic property would be restored. It was grand, they said, that the public would have access to the beach club. It was a great plan, they said.

   Yes, yes and yes. But what took them so long to get to this point?

   The City took possession of the old Sand and Sea Club nine years ago, but didn’t seem to know what to do with it -- beyond minimal maintenance. Ravaged by time and neglect, the frail old buildings suffered further damage in the 1994 Northridge earthquake. Since then, the buildings have been shut down and fenced off.

   For three years, nothing happened. Then, in 1997, the Council auth-orized the creation of a Working Group, which was given $180,000 and a mandate to develop a plan, though, as a friend said at the time, "All they have to do is rehab it. We know what to do with it."

   Of course, we do. It’s a beach club and we are beach people.

   But City Hall is City Hall. And so The Working Group went through the by now familiar ritual. It met, talked, worked with staff and its consultants, held workshops and hearings, considered four alternatives -- public park, recreational park, meeting center and public beach club -- and, to the surprise of no one, chose to recommend that the public beach club be made into, lo, a public beach club. That was in April, 1998.

   The Group’s report, "Recommended Site Use for 415 Pacific Coast Highway" is dated August, 1998. But it did not reach the Council until June 13, 1999.

   And, then, only barely and very oddly. It had been a long meeting, largely given to an extended debate about proposed new rules for street performers, Early Wednesday morning, July 14, City staff and the Group’s consultant, having waited since August, 1998 to make their presentation, were asked to wait longer.

   The Council opted to hear two members of the public who had asked to speak about the Proposal, after which the Council would go into closed session, after which it would hear the Proposal, after which it would continue the item to the July 20 meeting.

   And that is what happened. Never mind that the residents spoke enthusiastically about a proposal which did not yet exist officially and never mind that staff had waited fifteen months, only to make its presentation in the middle of the night to an exhausted Council.

   And never mind that, after seven years of inaction, a year of deliberation and a 15-month delay, the Council approved the "proposed site use alternative" enthusiastically after hardly more than a glance at it.

   And now, after all that, the new public beach club is still years away.

   Approval in hand, staff can now "proceed with steps required for planning and implementation, including preparation of an environmental impact report, documentation drawing and demolition plan, temporary repairs to the Main Building and an analysis of operating and management options." In addition, the City Manager is now authorized "to negotiate and execute an extension to the operating agreement with the State Department of Parks and Recreation," and the Mayor is authorized "to submit letters, on behalf the City Council, in support of funding opportunities for the project."