by Laura Garber
Pool advocates, led by Tara McNamara Stabile, and Marci Palla hope to enlist the Hermosa Beach City Council’s support at the Council’s Tuesday, June 24 meeting.
At that meeting, the Council is scheduled to review the recently completed 2025 Parks and Recreation Master Plan, a blueprint for the city for the next 30 years. A public pool was the top priority among residents surveyed during preparation of the master plan.
Hermosa hasn’t had a public pool since former lifeguard, Paul “Pablo” Matthies closed his Hermosa Swim Gym on Aviation Boulevard in the early 1970s.
“If I want to swim laps, I have to go to El Segundo or Torrance and it’s pretty competitive getting a time slot,” Palla, a private swim instructor, said in an interview.
Palla and McNamara Stabile have gathered approximately 1,000 signatures in support of a public pool. The duo met at Leadership Hermosa Beach, a yearly co-hort that trains, educates and connects local leaders.
McNamara Stabile ran for Hermosa City council in 2021 on a platform that included a public pool. “It’s not only a want but a need for the community,” she said in an interview. “A public swimming pool serves all ages, abilities, and income levels. Unlike single-use sports facilities, a pool offers a variety of health, fitness, and community benefits — and most importantly, it teaches essential lifesaving skills.”
The two often cite the plight of parents looking for children’s swimming lessons in neighboring beach cities. “Because they aren’t residents, they are usually waitlisted,” Palla said.
Among the most challenging questions regarding a public pool in Hermosa are cost, and location.
“It’s just a lack of imagination. Assumptive thinking that there’s nowhere for a pool to go,” McNamara Stabile said.
“Hermosa has 110 acres of parkland and 22 parks and parkettes,” Palla pointed out.
She has prepared pool renderings for Noble Park, Valley Park, and Bicentennial and Roadway Park.
The group also prepared an AI rendering of a pool atop a parking structure, and an indoor pool as part of the proposed new Civic Center.
“It could include indoor pickleball courts, and a dog park on the outside,” McNamara Stabile said.
One of the benefits of a Hermosa pool, she said, is parents shopping locally while their kids take swim lessons.
“I’m spending money in those locations because I need something to do,” she said.
Pools are costly to build and maintain.
Neighboring Manhattan Beach recently commissioned designs for a new pool facility in Polliwog Park. Estimates ranged from $20 million to $30 million.
McNamara Stabile proposed selling naming rights for the pool.
“We could have the ‘LA King’s swimming pool’ or ‘Jimmy Kimmel snackshack,’” she said.
She said a pool is a cause all factions of the often divided community could support.
“If oil divided us, water will bring us back together,” she said.
Francois to
host townhall
Hermosa Beach Councilmember, Dean Francois will host a townhall on Thursday, June 26, from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at Council Chambers. Community members are welcome to attend the forum and discuss any topics of interest. RSVP is optional at DFrancois@hermosabeach.gov. ER
This is truly wonderful! For years, I have faced challenges in finding swim lessons for my kids. As a single mother, driving to Torrance or Hawthorne is not an option for me, and I’ve consistently found myself on the waitlist for lessons at Begg Pool. It’s disheartening to think about how much my children could benefit from swim lessons, especially since I’ve longed for a public pool at the lawn bowling location. I genuinely admire the creativity behind these proposed solutions and believe they could make a real difference for families like mine.
I would love to have a public pool in Hermosa. It needs to be long enough to have at least 2 lap lanes.
A pool is total waste of money. What’s wrong with the big pool known as the Pacific Ocean? Also there is no problem in getting swim lessions and no need to go to Torrance as swim lessions are available in Redondo Beach at the Bay Club or in Manhattan Beach.
Zac Ive been teaching for over 35 years and still do. You can not teach kids and adults to swim the right way in the ocean and those with fear of putting their face in need a quality experienced instructor in a pool setting. Once they learn to swim in a pool then the ocean is great for playing but not leaning correct swimming. It is great for fun and body surfing. Not everyone likes to swim miles in the ocean like us life time swimmers do.