A Park at North Beach Will Unite; Playa del Norte Divides

While waiting for my interview to promote the North Beach Green Alternative at Cox Forum last week, my mind wandered back 41 years to 1970.

A developer came into my town with plans to build commercial buildings, parking lots, and condominiums on vacant city owned land. 

Sound familiar?

To make a long story short, a group opposed this commercial building on vacant city-owned land, and I ran for the city council on a platform of securing this land for a community park.

To the chagrin of the power structure in the city, I won as a “write-in” candidate in what the Orange County Register called a “political miracle.”

Thanks to those who supported me, and many who followed; this land, the former Pacific Electric right of way, is now a community park in Seal Beach. Go visit Seal Beach sometime and stroll through the park with the signature Red Car Museum on it.

Imagine it full of commercial buildings and condos. If you do that you will understand my passion for the proposed Ole Hanson Park at North Beach and why I feel the LAB project, Playa del Norte, would be a disaster for San Clemente.

They say that lightening never strikes the same place twice, but I am not so sure; the movement to expand Ole Hanson Beach Club lawn into a community park is gaining ground.

Once the LAB project is put to rest by a “no-on-A" vote, we can move forward with the Ole Hanson Beach Park. Just like Seal Beach’s Pacific Electric greenbelt-park 41 years ago, Ole Hanson Beach Park can bring the community together.

The Ole Hanson Park concept is now so popular that LAB supporters have adopted it.

In a full-page advertisement in the SC Times they advertise the 48, 970 square foot commercial building as being “like a park at the beach….” It is good they see how important it is to have a park at the beach.

So, after the defeat of Measure A on March 8, 2011 it sounds like they will be enthusiastic supporters of the North Beach Green Alternative. It is also great to hear Bill Hart, one of the leaders of the “Yes of A” group, call the park “a nice idea”on Cox Forum.

Welcome aboard, Mr. Hart and LAB supporters, to the North Beach Green Alternative park plan.

Conceptually designed by noted local architect Ricardo Nicol, the Ole Hanson Beach Park is a straightforward, family friendly, inexpensive way to start the revitalization of North Beach by building a community park on city owned land.

This is a 1, 2, 3, plan that almost no one can object to— except those who do not like parks.

First, 33 spaces will be taken from the parking triangle and transformed into an extension of the grassy area of the Ole Hanson Beach Club.

Second, 45 parking spaces will be built on the vacant, city owned, ECR lots that are south of El Camino Real and adjacent to the park.  These parking spaces will more than replace the spaces taken, creating a plus-12 in parking.  

Third, a small beach park café will be built on seven spaces of city-owned parking below the Ole Hanson Beach Club on Estacion. This will be a city-owned, privately operated concession, providing modest family fare of hamburgers, hot dogs, ice cream and other refreshments for park, trail, and Metrolink users.

Naysayers and LAB-lovers who trash the park idea because it will be owned by the public, would rather spend $4.6 million of public funds on building for a developer than use a small portion of that money to build 45 new parking spaces for the Ole Hanson Beach Park.

Major advantages that the park has over the LAB development:

•  Increases public beach access
• Enhances and preserves public views
• Expands public recreational use
• Offers a decreased carbon footprint
• Preserves historic coral and palm trees
• Fulfills Resolution 69-70 that took the triangle by eminent domain for parking and a park
• Saves the Metrolink riders from having to park in remote parking lots up Pico
• Stops the safety hazard on the Pacific Coast Bike Route of perpendicular parking on Deshecha
• Keeps the land for public ownership rather than private ownership
• A “slam dunk” for approval by the Coastal Commission

It is no surprise that the Sierra Club unanimously voted to support the North Beach Green Alternative and oppose the LAB project in their Resolution of September 2, 2010. 

Other than the expense of removing 33 spaces in the triangle and creating 45 new spaces on the ECR lots, costs to lay some new lawn with sprinklers would be minimal.  Most of the expense for the park could come from the existing $9 million dollars in the Beach Parking Fund.

Money for the benches and tables in the park could be raised from the public with naming rights assigned to these park features. A wall of tile squares could also be created to provide private funds for the park.

These are just some of the ideas for raising money to support the park.

There are so many reasons why the park is an ideal solution for North Beach.  A community park binds the people together and can be the true catalyst to bring about a revitalization of North Beach. Everyone can get behind it and we can unite the city, instead of dividing it like the LAB project has done. 

Like Seal Beach 41 years ago, the idea of a community park is an idea that’s time has come.  Start the process of making it a reality on March 8 by voting "no" on Measure A.