Community Beach Club to Open in April

Starting next spring, Pacific Palisades residents will have a new place to while away their free time lounging by the pool or playing tennis. Construction of the Annenberg Community Beach House, located on Santa Monica State Beach, is nearly complete, and the club will be open to the public in April. ‘We’re trying to create a real beach-club experience with a variety of activities from contemplative to active recreation,’ said Catherine ‘Callie’ Hurd, manager of the City of Santa Monica’s Open Space Division. The club’s many amenities include a garden, playground, pool, splash pad (with ground nozzles that shoot water upward for young children to play in), visitor center, event center and volleyball and tennis courts. The beach club, located at 415 Pacific Coast Highway, was originally the site of a 110-room mansion belonging to actress Marion Davies, who is remembered for her relationship with newspaper publisher William Randolph Hearst. The estate was sold in 1945 and converted into a luxury hotel. The mansion was then demolished and the property became the home of the Sand & Sea Club, a private beach club. After the club closed in 1989, the city of Santa Monica used the facility for seasonal public use until it was severely damaged in the 1994 Northridge earthquake. The city wanted to replace the beach club with a new public facility, and in 2005, the Annenberg Foundation stepped forward with a $27.5-million grant to fund the project. Construction began in September 2007. As part of designing the beach club, ‘we wanted to preserve the history of the site,’ Hurd said. The city is restoring Davies’ pool, which was originally designed by Julia Morgan, the architect of Hearst Castle in San Simeon. The rectangular-shaped 20-ft.- by-110-ft. pool will be available for open swim and drop-in fitness classes. The city is still deciding whether to stripe the pool for lap swimming because there would be only four lanes, Hurd said. Occupying the footprint of the original mansion will be a locker room complex with a 1,800-sq-ft. community room. One of Davies’ three guesthouses (the North House) is being converted into a visitor center and will be near the terrace garden. The Back on the Beach Caf’, located west of the club, is being remodeled and will reopen as part of the facility. Beach club patrons can also bring their own food. There will be an event house with a 700-sq.-ft. room for youth programs and a 2,000-sq.-ft. room and a 700-sq.-ft. room, with hardwood floors and fireplaces, for private events such as weddings and corporate parties. Hurd is making presentations at community meetings about how the city proposes to operate the beach club and is speaking on November 18 at the Santa Monica Canyon Civic Association at Rustic Canyon Recreation Center. She is seeking feedback from the community about the planned hours of operation and user fees. According to the city’s preliminary proposal, the beach club will be open from 8 a.m. until dark and until 10 p.m. on the weekdays and 11 p.m. on the weekends for special events. The pool will be available from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily in the summer and on weekends in May and September. In the winter, the pool will be open approximately 40 days from noon to 5 p.m., dependent on the weather. The event house can be rented for private events on the weekdays in the spring and summer and anytime from October to April. The event house is not available on the weekends in the spring and summer because those peak hours are reserved for the public, Hurd said. The city plans to charge $10 for adults to use the pool and $4 for children ages 4 to 17. Children under three years old will be admitted free. The city has not decided whether to include the splash pad in the pool fee or to provide that service for free. The six volleyball and tennis courts, playground, visitor center and garden will be free. Patrons will be able to make reservations for a court, swimming pool pass or parking space three days in advance by telephone or online. The registration fee will be $5, and a person can reserve a maximum of one parking space, eight pool passes and one court. The city has received approval to install a traffic signal off PCH. The parking lot has 277 spaces and beach-club goers will be required to pay $6 to $10. Short-term parking of one to two hours will be $3 to $4. The city intends to have bike racks that can accommodate 100 bikes and is considering offering a bike valet service, Hurd said. ‘All of this is preliminary,’ she reiterated. ‘We are open to suggestions.’ Community members can share their opinion about the hours of operation and fees by e-mail: beachhouse@smgov.net. Information: www.smgov.net/beach_house/