Redondo Beach Agrees to Share Shoreline Costs

Pressured by Los Angeles County officials, the Redondo Beach City Council has agreed to guarantee that it will shoulder a $140,000-per-year share of local beach cleaning and lifeguard costs.

But council members also backed away Tuesday from a proposal to boost shoreline parking meter rates to 75 cents from 50 cents an hour, leaving open the question of how they will come up with the promised beach money.

The council voted Tuesday to ensure payment of the $140,000 a year after receiving an ultimatum from the county, which spends more than $1 million annually for beach maintenance and supervision at Redondo Beach.

In a letter, the county Department of Beaches and Harbors said that if the city failed to guarantee the payments to the county in a contract, it could be left with the full cost of ensuring clean sand and safe swimming.

To raise money for the payments, City Manager Tim Casey on Tuesday proposed, among other options, that parking meter rates be increased to 75 cents an hour from the current 50 cents an hour in harbor, pier and beach areas.

But several residents spoke against the plan, and council members did not take it up. Mayor Brad Parton later said he thought the key criticism was that beach visitors would seek cheaper parking elsewhere, clogging unmetered neighborhoods with cars.

Homeowners along the Esplanade, where visitors already have to pay 50 cents an hour for parking, also protested that the rate increase would make it harder on their guests.

If it had been approved, the proposed meter rate hike would have been the second such increase in less than two years. In April, 1988, parking rates on the Esplanade were doubled to 50 cents an hour.

Part of the reason for that increase was to generate revenue to help offset county beach expenditures. But meter revenues in the 1988-89 budget year fell far short of projections, and the county received only $57,000 of the $140,000-a-year share it had expected.

At Tuesday’s meeting the council instructed Casey to study other methods to raise money for beach maintenance.