Planners express concern about sea base expansion

Mathis Winkler

MARINER’S MILE -- The Boy Scouts have some more work to do before

planning commissioners will approve a proposed expansion of their sea

base.

On Thursday, commissioners unanimously voted to postpone a decision

until their June 7 meeting, saying they still had concerns about the

project.

The main concern is the reduction of bay views from West Coast

Highway. Right now, there’s an open space of about 207 feet where people

driving on the street can look at the water.

If the project is built as proposed, that view would shrink by about

31%, to 142 feet, because a new, 8,215-square-foot sailing building will

sit parallel to the boardwalk.

In response, Commissioner Anne Gifford asked Scout officials to

explore other alternatives that would keep the views intact as much as

possible.

“I would need to see a lot of tightening up to reduce the amount of

view that’s taken away to support” the project, Gifford said.

Like her colleagues, Gifford said she saw the sea base as a “great

program and I applaud the fact that there are no restrictions on who can

participate.”

That comment came after David Janes, the chairman of the sea base’s

governing committee, told commissioners “the base is open to everybody,

regardless of race, creed, color . . . sexual orientation or sex.”

In September, members of gay rights groups and the American Civil

Liberties Union protested a decision by Orange County supervisors to

grant the Scouts a rent-free, 30-year lease extension. Protesters

objected to the leasing of public property to the Scouts because the

organization bars gays from membership.

Commissioners, who periodically stepped down from the dais to look at

a scale model and drawings of the expansion, because they had not

received detailed information before the meeting, told project supporters

that they’d also like to get a better idea of the sailing building’s

facade that will face West Coast Highway.

“If the view blockage [to the bay] is acceptable, what will people be

looking at?” Commissioner Larry Tucker asked.

The building’s metal roof also raised concern for Commissioner Steven

Kiser, who said it could cause sun reflection and bother residents on the

bluffs whose homes overlook the base.

Apart from the sailing building, which would sit near the existing

base building, Scout officials also hope to construct a 6,400-square-foot

rowing building. Altogether, the expansion would more than double the

base from 9,943 square feet to 22,060 square feet.

An increase in people using the base prompted the expansion. While the

number of visitors has almost tripled to 30,000 during the last five

years, the Scouts hope to accommodate 50,000 to 60,000 by 2010.

Janes said the organization had raised about $3.5 million of the

expected $4.5-million cost for the project so far.

He added that the Scouts had hoped to break ground in September to

open the new base for summer activities in 2002.

But because the organization still must get approval from the

California Coastal Commission, city officials said beginning construction

in September seems unlikely.