OPINION: Doing Nothing at North Beach is Not an Option—Complete the Park!

It has been five long months since Measure A

In a high-turnout special election, nearly 58 percent of the voters said “NO” to a mini-mall on publicly owned land at the beach. Many voted “NO” because they supported an alternative to the commercial structure, the completion of the park that was started in 1970 with the .

In the meantime what the City Council has done for almost half a year is to “kick the can down the road,” instead of dealing with the issue of completing the park. Like North Carolina’s fabled coach Dean Smith’s basketball tactic, the City Council has gone to the “four-corner stall” by dumping it on the rather unwieldy 21-member General Plan Advisory Committee (GPAC).

The GPAC members were chosen more than a year ago. Certain slots were reserved for powerful interest groups like the Chamber of Commerce and Historical Society. Other members were supposed to represent the general public as determined by the council majority of , and Joe Anderson.

One thing almost all of the GPAC members had in common was their zealous support for the . With only four exceptions GPAC is overwhelmingly a pro-LAB group. Many well-qualified applicants who did not favor the project were not chosen for GPAC.

Having the pro-LAB GPAC decide whether there will be a park or not on the triangle or not is tantamount to having the fox guard the hen house. One thing is certain, neither the chickens nor the park are likely to survive.

The can best be titled “The Revenge of the Yes on A Supporters—Kill the Park at North Beach.” The meeting unfolded as the city staff talked for 35 minutes in the set-up, the members of the public attending, generally pro-park, talked for 32 minutes, and then GPAC talked for a little more than an hour.

The finale to this meeting was a dot exercise devised by the city staff and presumably the $1.2-million consultant that left many of the GPAC members and most of the public scratching their heads.

It does not take a genius to connect the dots and see that its purpose was to stop the completion of the park plan for the triangle. Mission accomplished. The pro-LAB GPAC killed the park for now.

It is ironic that these LAB supporters who were solidly in favor of building on the triangle have now become supporters of the status quo—do nothing. They are the new “nay-sayers” and “do-nothing” advocates.

Since they cannot get their commercial building, they are against doing anything to improve the site. Hypocrisy anyone? This is like the proverbial kid who cannot win at the game and “takes his marbles and goes home.”

The primary method the consultant, staff, and GPAC used to kill the park idea is to focus on the Miramar. Saying the Miramar is the most important issue at North Beach is a real “duh!”

Doing something about it, as we have seen for the past 25 years, is another matter. Doing something about the Miramar depends on the owner of the Miramar.

On a scale of one to 10 in terms of degree of difficulty, the park ranks as a two or three and the Miramar is a 10. Completing the park (it is zoned for a park, the city owns the land, and much of the money is available in the parking fund) is something the city can easily do itself.

What GPAC suggests the city do is nothing about the issue it has power over—completing the park— and do something about the issue it has no power over—restoring the Miramar.

In short,they got it backwards. The park is maybe a two-year project and the Miramar restoration may well take 20 years. Which one should be start first?

It is also clear that completing the Ole Hanson Beach Park at North Beach is not a General Plan issue. The use of the triangle as a park is in accordance with the existing General Plan as well as Council Resolution 69-70. This 1970 resolution clearly established that the parking triangle taken by eminent domain is for parking, a park, and public use.

It is time for the City Council to step up to the plate and carry out its own resolution. It is also time for the Council to implement Resolution 94-55 that mandated that the El Camino Real lots, also taken by eminent domain, be used for parking.

Those who are trying to maneuver these lots into commercial space are defying this resolution. The GPAC has no business being put in charge of decisions regarding the park. The entire issue is outside their jurisdiction.

The GPAC was a nice idea, but stacking it with LAB supporters means that it will never represent a cross section of the city. They only represent the 42.7% of the voters who voted in favor of Measure A, not the 57.2% who voted against it.

The majority will, the will of those who defeated the LAB's Playa del Norte commercial project on the parking triangle, has been temporarily stalled by the pro-LAB forces on the GPAC. A year from now, this could all change.

Ultimately, it will be up to voters to decide by electing a council majority that favors a park. If they elect an anti-park majority the park will die.

The November 2012 election is just 15 months away; get ready for a spirited campaign!