A controversial proposal to install a path of decomposed granite along the Greenbelt in Hermosa Beach will be put off for further study, the City Council decided last week.
The decision, by a 4-1 vote with Councilmember Carolyn Petty dissenting, appropriates $28,000, 10 percent of what was initially budgeted for the Greenbelt proposal, to enable staff to examine the path project’s conformity with existing zoning codes. The decision came as the council approved the city’s 2017/18 budget. The vast majority of the nearly $40 million plan was approved unanimously, details having been hammered out in a study session last month.
The path project would have spent $280,000 to erect a path along the Greenbelt to enhance access for people in wheelchairs and those with difficulty walking, who have said that it is difficult or impossible to move along the wood chips. (It was not immediately clear from the budget whether the proposed path would have covered the length of the Greenbelt in the city, or just a portion of it.) Staff will return with a report on the proposal later this year, including whether an amendment to the municipal code would be needed for the project to advance.
But the legalistic dispute obscured a broader concerns over the process by which the project was introduced into the budget, with several council members surprised that it had emerged so suddenly and with no opportunity for prior public comment. And although public comment at the meeting itself was tilted in favor of the project, the proposal spurred hundreds of people to weigh in on its merits on social media , a majority of them against. Letters written to the council also tilted against the proposal, most united in the concern that a path along the Greenbelt would compromise one of the few undeveloped spaces remaining in the city.
“The Greenbelt is a treasure and adding a ‘roadway’ will certainly destroy the safe oasis that many residents seek in order to escape the urban overcrowding of Hermosa,” wrote Maureen Ferguson Lewis, a member of the city’s Parks, Recreation and Community Resources Advisory Board.
Others, however, argued that the path would not conflict with existing uses, and that the city had an obligation to expand access to the disabled and Hermosa’s growing senior population.
“We have a real jewel with the Greenbelt, but it’s not accessible to everybody. The chips make it very difficult,” said Isabel Rodriguez, also a Parks and Rec commission member, in a comment to the council. “The Greenbelt is not only a pathway, it’s a park. And parks should accessible to everyone.”
The source of the council’s hesitancy was uncertainty over the impact of certain zoning on the proposal. The entirety of the Greenbelt in the city is covered by the zoning designation “OS-1,” one of two “Restricted Open Space” designations in the municipal code. (The other, OS-2, covers only Noble Park.) The code allows only a small number of “permitted improvements”: beautification, erosion control, irrigation improvements, and landscaping.
City Attorney Michael Jenkins said it was not clear whether the addition of decomposed granite material, of which the path would be made, could be classified as “landscaping.” Landscaping is not defined in the municipal code, but another section of the code distinguishes between “hardscape” and “softscape,” and Jenkins said it could be inferred that “hardscape” was only permitted under landscaping when specifically mentioned. The decomposed granite is considered hardscape.
If staff’s review found that a path was inconsistent with the zoning, then a code amendment, and review under the California Environmental Quality Act, would be required for the project to advance.
In an interview after the meeting, activist Geoff Hirsch, one of the city’s leading accessibility advocates, said he was “extremely disappointed” with the decision, and called the legal issue a “smokescreen” designed to delay and ultimately “kill this project.” Hirsch pointed out that decomposed granite is used in other examples of open space in the city, most notably in the recently completed South Park. (South Park, like other parks in the city, is zoned “Open Space,” though not “Restricted Open Space.”)
“I’m a little confused as to why council would feel the need to study something that is already in place here in our city,” he said.
Councilmember Stacey Armato also expressed frustration that the legal obstacle emerged so far into the debate over the project, especially when it had been so hotly debated in the days leading up to the meeting. (The council had been discussing the budget for more than three hours before the zoning issue was first mentioned.)
That response was part of a larger concern about transparency, and even those who were inclined to support a pilot version of the proposal seemed surprised to see it in the proposed budget. In the past, blue “mobi mats” have previously been laid along the Greenbelt and on the beach during special events, but permanent installation represents a leap forward. Hirsch said that the idea for decomposed granite had been discussed, but not voted on, in the Access Hermosa working group, a collection of residents and city officials focusing on mobility issues. Former Public Works Director Andrew Brozyna, a member of Access Hermosa and a major designer of the capital improvements program, had his last day of work in the city on the day of the budget vote.
Mayor Justin Massey said that transparency concerns were especially important when it came to parks and green space.
“We need to be very vigilant in talking about any development of our open space,” Massey said. “You can incrementally make changes and before you know it, you end up with something that doesn’t resemble what you intended it to be in the first place.”
