New Lifeguard HQ to Expand Down Rather Than Up
After months of public grumbling about height, size and obstruction of ocean views, plans for the new lifeguard headquarters at the north end of Main Beach unanimously approved by the City Council Tuesday night add more room by going deep rather than high.
Two designs were submitted to the council to replace the existing 50-year-old, 1,850-square-foot marine safety office. Out of two designs, one 6,934 square feet and the other 6,526 square feet, the council opted for the larger facility.
"I agree with the staff's recommendations for option number one," said Marine Safety Chief Kevin Snow. "The biggest concern is the size of the apparatus bay." The garage in option one offers additional storage space and is wider for easier access to the lifeguards' emergency vehicle.
Both plans included a public rooftop view deck. The deck was eliminated Tuesday night due to concerns by the adjacent Inn at Laguna Beach that people would have the vantage of seeing into guestrooms.
"I can do that walking the path every morning," Mayor Kelly Boyd kidded. "And I do. I left my binoculars at home."
The new headquarters is larger due to the fact that the Main Beach sewer pump station was moved to an adjacent area while controls and the generator for both buildings will be housed in the lifeguard headquarters. Building of the sewage facility will begin in the fall of 2010 with the lifeguard headquarters to follow in the spring of 2011 at a cost of $3.3 million, which is now considered an outdated estimate.
"I'm going to assume it's going to be more than that," said Wade Brown, the city's project manager. "Since we've been working on these plans for several years, we just don't have anything better to go on yet."
Plans to design a new public restroom near the Main Beach lifeguard headquarters started in 1999, said Brown, and were quickly altered to include a modernized lifeguard facility that incorporated the new restrooms. Plans now call for removing the current restroom, returning the area to natural bluff and beach, and providing a public restroom as part of the new lifeguard headquarters.
Due to its larger size, the selected design puts the lifeguard headquarters 15 feet closer to the ocean than the existing facility.
The plans harshest critics, manager David Shepherd and owner Ennis Dale from the Inn at Laguna Beach, were satisfied with the plan because the council removed a view deck from its plans.
"If we got the mayor not to look in the rooms now, we'd have it made," owner Ennis Dale commented after the council's vote.
To keep people happy with as unobstructed a view as possible, lifeguards agreed to forfeit a second story station by writing their reports, conducting staff meetings, storing their stuff in lockers, showering and using the restroom in the basement.
