Project will be looked at in January
By Jim Shilander
The future look of the Ole Hanson Beach Club is still up in the air, as the San Clemente City Council tabled a proposal for the design to refurbish the historic facility Tuesday until after the new year.
City recreation Manager Pam Passow said both the public and city staff preferred one of the three designs, noting that the reason the reason to do the rehabilitation was to provide an additional space in town for events, as well as to simply provide a renovation to the site that respected its history. Passow noted that the preferred design would allow for a catering kitchen, as well as an elevator that could allow for events as well as comply with the Americans With Disabilities Act. The site, itself, she said, was still “fairly inefficient.”
Residents were split on the issue. George Gregory encouraged the city to move forward with a proposal to make the building as functional as possible.
San Clemente Historical Society President Larry Culbertson said his group would prefer to see a restoration that respected the aesthetics of the building.
Members of the council, however, seemed to question the preferred option. Councilman Bob Baker said he preferred to have another architect take a look at the proposal.
“We have a real opportunity to make something a little bit better than what we have right now,” Baker said. “There’s just something about this that’s off to me.”
Councilmember Lori Donchak warned that the effort shouldn’t go too far.
“I will be passionate about keeping the exterior of the building,” Donchak told the council.
The council will have a study session for the proposal as its first meeting in January.
The council did approve a proposal to make the new playground equipment at Max Berg Park universal access, meaning it would be accessible for those who have difficulty with movement, similar to the Courtney SandCastle Playground at Vista Hermosa Sports Park. The cost of making the park universal access would only be $25,000 additional cost to replacing the current equipment.
