Giant Step towards the Del Mar Beach Safety Center

The long-awaited Beach Safety Center is now on its way!  The Beach Safety Center has been identified as a priority of our residents and of the City Council for many years.  The existing 17th Street Life Guard station has been an eyesore in our City, and is not meeting the needs for our Lifeguards to provide critical services.  At the November 8th Council Meeting, the City Council took a giant step towards the completion of this much needed project by directing that the net proceeds from the sale of the Balboa Lot be used to fund the Beach Safety Center.  The sale of the Balboa Lot netted $4.2 Million to the City.  These funds have already been received by the City, and as also directed by the Council, have been used to retire the $3.45 Million remaining on the note for the property that the City took out.  After reimbursing the City’s Open Space Fund for Balboa Lot selling expenses, the City Council was able to direct $708,102 of funds into the Beach Safety Center capital reserve.  Barbara Harper, a well-known advocate for this project, said “We are very excited to be able to move forward on this project as a top priority for the City.  Now we will be able to start some physical evidence of progress on the site and people will have much more confidence that their contributions will show quick results. We look forward to our next two fundraisers, including our annual casino night in February,” indicating that the Friends were eager to raise additional funds to get the Center built.

The 17th Street Beach Safety Center has been a project on the City’s work program since 2002.  There have been many public workshops concerning the proposed design for the facility, and by 2006 the City’s Design Review Board gave conditional approval to the design. There has been much subsequent discussion in the community regarding design elements and the estimated cost of the facility, and after reviews by interested residents, the Finance Committee, the Friends of the Powerhouse, and Howard Gad and others, unanimous approval was secured by the DRB in May 2009. 

In its last budget cycle, the City Council approved $50,000 for the estimated $200,000 required to fund the design and required engineering and geotechnical investigations for the project.  The Friends of the Powerhouse generously agreed to commit the $150,000 required to make up the balance of the cost.  We hope to complete the project’s architectural drawings over the course of the next few months, and are hopeful that continued fundraising by the Friends of the Powerhouse and by the Community will lead to enough funding to begin construction next year.  The attractive design of this long-awaited facility will be a wonderful addition to our beautiful waterfront and will serve our Community with new walkways and improved bathrooms as well as providing our Lifeguards with a modern and safe working environment.  We are in a very favorable construction market now.  If we can act quickly, we may be able to achieve significant savings on the $2.7 million estimated cost of this project.