Beach parking or community center for El Granada?

“Scaling back to some degree I think would be good. It’s so complex, it’s so many problems. On paper, it looks beautiful,” Councilmember Dan Haggerty said. “But because it’s so complex, there’s a lot of little issues. Some are big. I want to say parking is the biggest issue, in my mind.”

Proposed development would create a “village green” section of the parcel with active and passive parks, renovation and expansion of the community recreation center and play areas as well as fitness stations.

The project would remove the parking lot near the skate ramp, according to the finalized letter, creating a significant loss that would be exacerbated by existing Caltrans plans to remove around 150 informal parking spaces near Surfer’s Beach to create a bike lane.

“The cumulative effect of that project and the Granada Community Park project will be to remove virtually all existing parking for visitors to Surfer’s Beach,” the letter read, asking the GCSD to persuade Caltrans to change its current plans as well as maintain the skate park parking lot.

Community members remained worried that a loss of parking and the newly-designed community center — which resident Leni Schultz likened to Disneyland — would push visitors further into community streets when going to the beach.

“We have that one street along the front of Granada, and with Caltrans wanting to remove the parking spaces on Highway 1, most likely they want to shift the parking to the front of El Granada, which would be even more of an insult to our community,” she said. “We’re not in the business of providing parking for the county, we’re a community.”

Other residents and parents voiced frustrations around the planned removal of the Picasso preschool and the lack of adequate child care services included in the replacement design.

“We’re going to demolish a preschool, which is an asset to the community … and we’re somehow gonna come up with millions and millions of dollars to construct a community center that people in the community don’t even know about?” resident Janet Brayer said.

The Midcoast Community Center letter also asked for clarification on how the park would be funded and operated once it is built.

The project’s website said design consultants are working on grant applications and other federal, state and county funding sources to “fully realize the exciting potential” of the plans.

Another resident, David Seaton, expressed similar concerns about the child care center.

“It’s a huge disservice for a community center to push out an active population of children that should be their target market,” he said. “There’s this arrogance, this grandiose empire-building the [Granada Community Services District] is really dead set on.”

He emphasized, however, that the community needed to find productive ways to discuss challenging issues.

“It’s the same thing I’ve heard for years, that there’s not this proactive thought process that says, ‘hey we have these major issues,’ and strategically come up with solutions to solve these problems, instead of the way our community does things, which is just flat-out rejecting,” he said.

Other considerations in the Midcoast Community Council letter included dog park waste, park lighting and proposed pickleball courts, as well as a lack of communication with residents about the plans and a request that the public comment period be extended for 30 more days.

“Given that the project has been in the planning process for years, and it will have a huge impact on the community, a public comment stage of the process seems like an ill-advised stage to rush through,” the letter read.