Conservancy Board Will Debate YMCA Pool Fate

The Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy board will discuss the future of the former Palisades-Malibu YMCA pool in Temescal Gateway Park on Tuesday, December 2 at 7:30 p.m. in Stewart Hall in Temescal Canyon. At the request of its executive director, Joe Edmiston, the board will decide whether to offer open bidding on a five-year lease for the pool or to move forward with plans to fill the empty pool with dirt. A civil engineering firm recommended packing the pool with dirt for liability purposes. On October 15, the Conservancy applied for a coastal development permit waiver from the California Coastal Commission to fill in the pool. Community members protested the action, arguing that it would prevent rehabilitating the pool, which had to be closed in February because of a recirculation leak. The Y had hoped to repair the pipe until learning that all of the pool’s aging pipes need to be replaced at an estimated cost of $400,000. Meanwhile, the YMCA and the Conservancy failed to negotiate a new lease agreement this spring, resulting in Edmiston’s subsequent threat to fill the pool and then to ask his board to decide the pool site’s future on December 2. This spring, Edmiston also announced the need for a new master plan for all of Temescal Gateway Park (which is owned by the Conservancy), in part to decide whether a pool should remain in the canyon long-term. On Tuesday, his board will decide whether to authorize the long-term planning process. On November 14, responding to community protests about filling in the pool, Edmiston proposed the possibility of having open bidding among eligible nonprofit organizations that might want to operate the pool with a five-year, non-reneweable lease for $1 a year, which is what the YMCA paid for decades. However, he is also proposing that the new lessee (which could be the Y) pay about $76,000 a year towards the Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority’s at-risk youth programming. The Conservancy board will decide these issues Tuesday evening after a presentation about the at-risk youth programs in Temescal, followed by public comment from 8 to 9 p.m.