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Dear Mayor Waage, Council Members and Staff,
Please distribute the attached letter to the appropriate destinations.
We appreciate your time and consideration.
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Thank you,
Members of Protect Shell Beach
6/3/2022
Dear Mayor, Council Members, Planning Commission and Staff,
We are “Protect Shell Beach”, an unincorporated nonprofit group of Pismo Beach residents created to keep a watchful eye on development within our city.
We stand firmly in opposition of the current design considerations (Option C) for the proposed fire and police facilities.
We have no intention of standing by and witnessing this horrid mistake unfold, only to become a permanent change we wish we had never allowed.
The tone of this letter is set purposely to express how upset we are with decisions being made for permanent major city changes and expenses without any public input allowed.
Yes, you work for us. We hired you when we voted you into place, which at the time, was in accordance with what you promised during your campaign. You vowed to listen to our wants and needs, making this our community, not yours. It may be time to restructure the responsibilities of the council members because there has become a tremendous departure from the reason this body is in place. The council should be acting on behalf of the overwhelming majority of voters and residents in our community and stop making unilateral decisions without our input. This approach to take the decision out of the voters’ hands is unacceptable and will not be tolerated.
We understand that the first traffic survey showed that with several options to mitigate concerns for potential response delay, the diagonal driveway was determined to be safe. Subsequently, during one of the meetings, for some unknown reason, the engineer seemed pressured to alter this decision. We can’t understand why or how a licensed, professional expert can generate a critical safety analysis and then out of the clear blue, turn 180˚ in another direction. We have suspicions and are not comfortable with how or why this occurred. Therefore, based upon the seriousness of our concern for safety, we recommend a second independent study for comparison. This second firm must be interviewed by a city employee or a trusted citizen, who has NOT been involved thus far, so as to remove all prejudice.
Although “Option B” was approved, which we remind you included a licensed traffic engineering study performed which concluded that the scheme incorporating the diagonal driveway from the fire department would be safe, this design still took our precious schoolhouse building away, offering a mere token replication, in an attempt to appease our community. Now, having learned the most current news that the city council had an unannounced emergency meeting, resulting in overriding the aforementioned approved design, altering the driveway entrance/exit and redirect the emergency vehicles onto Bello, claiming that this is solely for safety reasons, is beyond absurd. Who is missing at the helm? Who is misguiding some of the council members? Bello and/or Wadsworth are narrow and congested streets.
Should an emergency vehicle commit to departing directly onto either street, they will most likely be obstructed by several situations which would block them, endangering the lives of the very people they are attempting to save. While in fact, utilizing the diagonal layout, the GHD study states that the main intersection can be rendered fully clear by means of a traffic control system. This sounds more like an emergency vehicle leaving the property would be given multiple route options to avoid any delay.
Aside from the fact that the city was negligent and allowed this building to deteriorate in the first place, when measures could have been utilized to protect its current level of deterioration, this old schoolhouse remains the most beautiful building in Pismo Beach. How dare you even consider demolishing any part of this historical treasure, in any way, shape or form. You have no right, based upon our community’s desire to preserve, and restore it.
This schoolhouse building, in its entirety, must be rebuilt, at all cost. The proper architectural and engineering firms should be engaged to reconstruct/restore it in place and then expand in both directions with the same architectural style, to ultimately produce a magnificent project. We are confident that it is feasible to save the schoolhouse building while also creating a new, safe, ADA compliant building for fire and police. We have listened to all the supposed reasons this building cannot be restored and unanimously disagree. To include but not limited to, the fact that the raised elevation with steps at the entry will not work because of ADA compliance, the existing brick on the front elevation has
no foundation, the floor and roof structures are dilapidated etc. None of these conditions are insurmountable. They can all be corrected. The interior of the building can be redesigned and repurposed to facilitate the fire department’s needs.
If any part of the city council’s determination is the result of lack of funds, then this project must be placed on hold, until such time as funds to execute the project properly are available.
Final determination for this project must follow the desire of the majority of resident taxpayers, taking the decision away from a few blinded council members acting on their own.
Sincerely,
Members of Protect Shell Beach