By Dee W. Pack Santa Monica
The Planning Commission of the city of Santa Monica did the right thing by moving forward last Wednesday on the plan to create a public beach club at 415 PCH — the site of the old Marion Davies estate. Heavily damaged by the 1994 Northridge earthquake, this property is currently a fenced-off eyesore. The city has been generously granted $28 million for this effort by the Annenberg Foundation, and it would be very short sighted to not take advantage of this unique opportunity to preserve and reclaim this historic site for our citizen’s use. A public beach club would enable improved use of our beach resources in our open-space challenged city. Indeed, the north part of Palisades Beach is so sparsely used that lifeguards refer to it as “The Gobi Desert.” The planned facility would greatly enhance beach access to the handicapped, provide jobs for local youth and provide tourism synergies with our local hotels, Third Street Promenade and the Santa Monica Pier.
A few Palisades Beach neighbors have objected to the plan and threatened legal action. The city should and is planning to implement reasonable traffic mitigation and security measures, and engaging with those who own property near the 415 PCH site, but our city should not be cowed by threat of an unjustified lawsuit and miss the opportunity presented by the Annenberg Foundation grant. Indeed, concessions offered to the few people objecting to the project, such as limiting the public meeting space, eliminating a kitchen and having social functions only during the off-season, may already go too far and limit the number of uses for the proposed beach club. Several large private beach clubs have operated in this neighborhood for years including the Sand and Sea Club at the same 415 PCH site. Objections to the proposed public beach facility smack of elitist “NIMBYism.”
The city of Santa Monica has been very successful in recent years with several ambitious public projects including the Swim Center at SMC, Virginia Avenue Park and the wonderful new Main Library. Let’s keep up the momentum and seize this opportunity to create a crown jewel on our Gold Coast. I urge the Landmarks Commission and the City Council to approve this wonderful project and build a beach club facility that preserves our city’s past and invests in its future.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on April 10, 2006. Read the original PDF.