City Council Meeting: December 4, 2007

Agenda Item: 1-A

To: Mayor and City Council

From: Barbara Stinchfield, Community and Cultural Services Director

Subject: Adoption of a Resolution of Support Authorizing Grant Application For Federal Preserve America Grant Funds.

Recommended Action

Staff recommends that the City Council adopt a Resolution of Support authorizing the City Manager to submit a Federal Preserve America grant application to the National Park Service for a cultural mapping project to be located at the Annenberg Community Beach Club, documenting the cultural history of Santa Monica State Beach.

Executive Summary

The Preserve America grant program is administered by the National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior, and provides designated Preserve America Communities the ability to compete for grant funds to support planning, development, and implementation of activities and programs in heritage tourism such as surveying and documenting historic resources, interpreting historic sites, planning, marketing, and training. City staff will prepare an application seeking $100,000 in grant funds for the development of a cultural mapping project that will include oral histories, a permanent display at the Annenberg Community Beach Club and a cultural marker program highlighting the people and events that shaped Santa Monica State Beach history and significantly influenced popular culture in the world. If awarded, the grant will require a dollar-for-dollar, non-federal match which will be provided using funds currently approved for cultural programming at the Annenberg Community Beach Club.

Background

In 2004, the City submitted a successful application to designate Santa Monica as a Preserve America Community by emphasizing the City’s accomplishments and ongoing efforts in recent years to enhance the economic and cultural vitality of the City’s Landmark Santa Monica Pier. Benefits of receiving designation as a Preserve America Community include recognition as a national leader in preservation efforts, and the eligibility to compete for Preserve America Community grant funds.

Staff advised Council in an Information Item dated February 16, 2005, City Council - 2005 Information Items - City of Santa Monica that the National Advisory Council on Historic Preservation designated the City of Santa Monica as a Preserve America Community, making Santa Monica at that time only the third California community to win this designation.

The FY 2008 Preserve America grant cycle provides an opportunity for the City to seek funding to support documentation of Santa Monica’s colorful and historically significant beach history, including the role it has played in shaping popular culture and its direct links to heritage tourism. The new Annenberg Community Beach Club provides a perfect opportunity to launch such a project and to serve as its “home base.” Anticipated components of the mapping project will include oral histories, permanent displays and development of a cultural marker program identifying key sites along Santa Monica State Beach.

Discussion

During the last several years, interest in preserving Santa Monica’s beach culture has been increasing. City staff has been contacted by numerous community members who have expressed concerns that the history of important beach icons, such as Muscle Beach and Ink Well Beach, will be lost. In addition, participants at the numerous community workshops for the new Annenberg Community Beach Club emphasized the need to preserve the site’s important history and the role it has played in Santa Monica’s beach culture – first as the Marion Davies Estate and later as a hotel and the popular Sand and Sea Club. These participants also felt that the new beach club should serve as the cornerstone of a broader effort to document the role that Santa Monica has played in the birth of now popular sports such as skateboarding, surfing, and beach volleyball.

The recent notice of fund availability through the Federal Preserve America grants provides the City with an opportunity to expand the planned interpretative program at the Annenberg Community Beach Club to include these other aspects of Santa Monica beach culture. A completed application package must include the attached Resolution of Support showing the City’s willingness to accept the Preserve America funding if awarded and demonstrating its commitment to the project. The application is due to the National Park Service by December 12, 2007. Grants will be awarded based upon funding availability. A Preserve America Grants Selection Panel, a panel of experts representing the partner agencies, will review applications and make funding recommendations. The Secretary of the Interior, in consultation with the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, will select successful applicants and forward selections to the White House and to the House and Senate Committees on Appropriations for concurrence. Awards will be announced after the White House and Committees concur.

Public Outreach

If funded, City staff will provide opportunities for community input at meetings of relevant City Commissions and will solicit the participation of local organizations involved in cultural and historic preservation and cultural tourism.

Financial Impacts & Budget Actions

If the grant of $100,000 is awarded, the City must provide dollar-for-dollar matching funds. These matching funds will be available in the Annenberg Community Beach Club base operating budget that was approved in the City’s FY 2008-09 Budget Plan in account 11522.544390. $102,500 in cultural programming funds have been including in the beach club’s annual operating budget projections and will be available to sustain and update beach culture programming in future years. A subsequent Council action may be required to accept the grant and make appropriate budget changes. Revenue and expenditure accounts would be established at that time.

Prepared by:

Karen Ginsberg, Assistant Director

Approved:	Forwarded to Council:
Barbara Stinchfield Director, Community & Cultural Services	P. Lamont Ewell City Manager

Attachment A: Preserve America Grant Resolution