Jonathan Club Supplemental Report (One)

August 11, 2009

City Council Meeting: ~~July 28, 2009~~

Agenda Item: ~~8-A~~

8-B

To: Mayor and City Council

From: Barbara Stinchfield, Director, Community and Cultural Services

Subject: Future Use of the Beach Property Leased by the Jonathan Club

Executive Summary

On July 14, 2009, the City Council heard a staff report, received a submission by the Jonathan Club, and heard public testimony on the issue of whether there has been a material change in the need for public use of the three beach parcels currently leased to the Jonathan Club. Council also asked for additional information and continued the item for deliberation. This report supplies information responsive to the Council’s questions and the Club’s arguments, and transmits documents supporting the oral presentations made by City staff.

Discussion

Council asked for additional information about the evidence on changes in beach usage since entering into the lease in 1984. This request reflected an apparent disparity between the information supplied by City staff and the information supplied by the Club. City staff provided statistics on beach parking, which are set forth in the beach parking statistics included as Exhibit A to this supplemental report. These statistics reflect a three-fold increase in beach parking car counts and beach parking revenues from FY 1984/85 to FY 2007/08, and quantitative data detailing this increase.

The Jonathan Club submitted statistics maintained by the County and argued that these statistics show a “50% or more” decline in the usage of the north beach during that same period of time. This argument of a steep decline is not supported by information received by City staff from the County Lifeguards who maintain records of estimated beach attendance. A summary of the estimated beach attendance compiled from the County Lifeguards is attached in Exhibit B. The County’s records reflect estimated attendance in excess of 6 million visitors in the north beach during different periods of the lease term and does not support the Jonathan Club’s claimed sharp decline in usage. Photographs of the Santa Monica beach taken on July 4, 2008, attached as Exhibit C, reflect the public popularity of Santa Monica State Beach.

In addition, the Club’s lease was entered into during a period known as “El Nino.” “El Nino” caused a significant increase in water temperatures and resulted in additional visitors to the beach during this unusual weather phenomenon. As weather conditions invariably cause fluctuations in beach attendance, the period of “El Nino” was an anomaly according to the Lifeguard’s representative. Even taking into consideration the “El Nino” factor, and other weather variables, the County’s own statistics for the North Beach area do not reflect a sharp decline.

Over the past several years, the County Lifeguards also represented to the City that due to significant numbers of organized recreational groups and surfing instructors entering the water at Santa Monica State Beach and the resulting demands upon the Lifeguards and threat to public safety, a permitting system to limit and regulate surf and sand camps and surf instruction was required. The County Lifeguards explained that with the significant numbers of individual swimmers and surfers in the surf, their ability to also oversee increasing numbers of organized groups, particularly youth, entering the water was compromised. In response to the County, the City Council adopted an emergency ordinance in 2004 and a revised ordinance in 2007establishing a permitting system for organized surf groups, sand camps and surf instructors based in part on the above findings. Copies of the staff reports and ordinances are attached as Exhibits D and E. With this process in place, the City-run programs continue to experience increases in summer surf and sand camp registrations, increasing from 876 youth in the summer of 2005 to 1,176 in 2008. These do not include the additional numbers of participants at private camps receiving permits.

Additionally, at the July 14^th hearing, City staff noted that, since the inception of the lease in 1984, four large beach hotels have been built in Santa Monica. Exhibit F lists those hotels and the number of rooms at each.

City staff also discussed the public amenities that are needed on the North Beach, including paddle tennis courts and walkways providing expanded capacity on the current beach pathway and additional pathways across the beach towards the water. The Jonathan Club proposes to construct public paddle tennis courts north of the Club and adjacent to public parking. However, the Club’s proposed location may not be suitable. In response to the City’s request for paddle tennis courts when it was seeking its coastal permit for the Annenberg Community Beach House, the California Coastal Commission’s expressed concerns about extending the line of development further seaward, adverse cumulative impact on public access, and obstruction of public coastal views. The Coastal Commission rejected the City’s requested location. Copies of the relevant pages of the Coastal Commission staff report and permit are attached as Exhibit G, and a full copy of the staff report will be available at the meeting. In contrast, the parcels leased by the Jonathan Club are suitable for development of recreational amenities contemplated for the North Beach, including paddle tennis courts in that they would not occur westward of the line of existing development along North Beach. Two of the parcels are dirt, and Parcel 2 is currently adjacent to privately owned courts surrounded by fencing and would not obstruct views.

The Jonathan Club asserts that the parcels are landlocked and not accessible. The aerial photograph attached as Exhibit H identifying the pedestrian accessway immediately south of the Club providing public access from PCH to the beach, and the public parking to the north, reflects the parcels are accessible for recreational amenities and would further promote public recreational space in the North Beach. City staff is

prepared to respond to any further questions that the City Council may have in response to this additional information.

Prepared by: Barbara Stinchfield, Director, Community and Cultural Services

Approved:

Forwarded to Council: